Ever since May of 2011, I’ve been working very hard to cope with numerous surgeries, complications, and the fact that my vision will soon be gone. This has not been easy, but My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic helped me get through a lot of it.


In 2013, I attended my first BronyCon with my, then, six year old son, Ethan. It took place approximately on the one year anniversary of when my eye exploded from the inside. This traumatic event in 2012 kept me away from my family under extreme bedrest in a hospital for nearly two months. made me totally blind for nearly two months, required six surgeries to resolve, and kept me out of work on unpaid leave for seven months.


Being at BronyCon 2013 was definitely an extreme improvement over where I was in the previous year. This was a wonderful experience as it allowed me to meet the makers of Snowdrop. This animation by Silly Filly Studios, now SFS, is what finally got me on the path of accepting that I am going to be totally blind and how losing all my vision would not be the end of me.


SNOWDROP:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=do6RDSwaWek


SFS PANEL AT BRONYCON 2013 – I appear at approximately 21:55
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IYqmnCwLhAE


It goes without saying how accepting everyone was at BronyCon. I’m used to people avoiding me. In particular parents with children. However, people genuinely wanted to talk to me, ask me questions about what it was like to have my condition, and most importantly parents shared how most were there due to how My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic did something to empower their children and they wanted in on the convention to find out what it was.


Realizing how those with limitations, special needs, and/or disabilities, like myself, had found a haven within the “Brony Fandom”, I went about suggesting to the operators of BronyCon about how they should put on a panel about how the show gives those with limitations a much needed sense of acceptance, understanding, empowerment, and, most importantly, community. Their response was for me to submit to do such a panel. So, I did, got accepted, and put on the very first Coping with Disabilities Through Pony presentation in August of 2014.


CWDTP – BRONYCON 2014
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rtp8VVIVOGY


The first presentation focused on humanizing what typically is seen as cookie-cutter stereotypes for those with special needs. It was also an opportunity for me to work with Meredith Sims, (Writer and Voice of Snowdrop), to allow those in attendance to get an idea of what went into making what has become a very empowering animation for anyone seeking to build self-esteem and self-acceptance despite any label they may have, or have been given.


Unfortunately, just before I was to put on the presentation in 2014 with my team, I had to go on FMLA from my job due to my degenerative condition making it impossible to perform the duties of the job I had held for four years. This meant I had very limited income and needed to sell a good number of personal items in order to afford what I needed to for the presentation. It was all worth it, but I didn’t know if I would be able to return to work given the nature of my condition.


2015 rolled along with my condition not improving. However, my determination to advocate for myself along with others with special needs, limitations, and/or disabilities only grew. This encouraged me to sign up to put on a follow-up panel at BronyCon 2015. This one entitled, “Coping with Disabilities – Being 120% Cooler”.


CWDTP – BRONYCON 2015
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IyJ9tjQAQq4


Despite a number of unexpected complications with the A/V equipment, I worked with my team to help provide even more resources towards helping people self-advocate for themselves. There was a lot more I had hoped our team could do, but the A/V issues cut into a lot of our time. Fortunately, two of our team members were able to fulfill some of what was not able to be done as a presentation for the Harrisburg Autism Society while Mary Rhodes and her daughter, Leah, took the presentation to a whole new level at November’s Ponyville Ciderfest in Milwaukee, Wisconsion.


As with 2014, most of what went into funding the presentation and its supplementary materials came from the selling of personal items. This helped out a lot while also allowing me to part with items that I could no longer enjoy as a result of my continually diminishing vision.


By the end of 2015, I had learned there was no way I could ever return to my employer. My vision had gotten too bad to perform any positions near, or around, my skill level. The best I could manage was to resign. Unfortunately, the resignation came at the very time I found out I needed to have ocular surgery in January 2016 in order to remove infectious blisters that had formed on my dead cornea.


Despite knowing I would likely not make it through the surgery with any vision, I decided to put in to present at BronyCon 2016. I knew we had more to share. Moreover, thanks to Mary Rhodes, I met another individual who works towards bettering the lives of those with special needs, Amanda Robinson. Partnering with her allowed me to build another team that I knew would make a positive difference once we reached the convention.


The surgery to remove the blisters from my eye was a surprising success! However, it caused a complication that opened me up to infection through another part of my eye.


Long story short, I needed three surgeries between January and April of 2016. The most notable being a retina reattachment. The appointments, surgeries, and costs associated with recovery have piled on fast. However, I committed to putting on the best presentation of Coping with Limitations with my team and I wasn’t going to let anything stop me from succeeding in showing how I definitely practice what I preach.


Through solid determination, our team pulled off, in my opinion, our best presentation ever. It was called “Coping with Limitations: Owning Your Cutie Mark” and focused around how you shouldn’t judge yourself, or let others judge you, by whatever label(s) may be associated with you.

We are all individuals. Nobody can be defined by a condition, limitation, special need, or disability as we all respond and cope with what we have in unique ways. To help further this point, the rest of the team presented on how role play and cosplay are quite effective in building social skills, self-acceptance, self-empowerment, and help provide insight into what it is like to be in “Someone else’s shoes”.


With BronyCon 2016 come-and-gone, I have thought of what more I can do to advance upon all that has been done by myself and my team. I’ve also considered how I no longer have anything to fund another presentation.


Because of this, along with a strong need to focus more on coping with my continual descent into total blindness, I am retiring from BronyCon.


Please know that I will continue my positive advocacy activities while working alongside all of my team to ensure a better tomorrow for all those with special needs, limitations, and/or disabilities. I’m just no longer able to do it at BronyCon. I’m also trying to explore other avenues of creativity / inspiration that can prove beneficial in creating an accepting and empowering community for those who go misunderstood as a result of society seeing a label instead of a genuine person capable of more than what a book definition or stereotype may say.


I’m proud of what my team and I have achieved through our efforts at BronyCon. I’m extremely thankful for how those who run the convention gave me the opportunity to advocate through this international event. If BronyCon can provide a stage for improving the lives of everyone, I’m hopeful other venues, events, or businesses can do the same.


Thank you all for all of your support. So many made Coping with Limitations Through Pony the success that it is. Should anyone wish to help continue, or expand, upon the work we’ve started, please let me know.