People have asked me in the past, "What do you think you would be like if you hadn't been disabled?"

It's a bit of a silly question and I've often answered dismissively, "Like my twin brother."

But a question that has more interest to me is, "What could have happened differently, had I had common rather than unique function?"

Three things stand out for me, the first two of which I've often considered. Firstly, I could have ended up a junkie. As a youngster I was a bit of a pothead and I could have gotten into heavier drugs (I was offered heroin at least once and pills many times). What stopped me is I knew I had to keep myself safe, which I would not have been able to do if I and those I was with had gotten really wasted. So I stuck to weed.

Secondly, I could have ended up HIV+. I couldn't strut into a club anytime and hook up with anyone, but I sure remember wanting to. A wheelchair wasn't the most alluring of accessories so it limited my options to people who were ok with it. As a young, slightly irresponsible gay man, it could have also limited my risk to infection. 

The third thing I realised just the other day, after talking to someone who works with homeless youth — I could have ended up homeless myself. I left home before I left school, halfway through year 13 (then 7th form). I was rebellious and argued lots with my folks so I negotiated with them that they let me live in a residential facility for disabled people around the corner from home on the proviso I'd have some supervision. Three years later the woman who ran the place kicked me out for challenging her authority — but she found me a state house to live in.

In other circumstances I may have just left home in the heat of the moment, crashed with mates, gotten kicked out, not wanted to go home, had no money, had nowhere else to go and ended up on the streets. That is neither an unusual nor unlikely story for homeless youth.

So, "disability" is often seen as a negative thing, but there's a creative way of seeing it as a unique experience that not only changed my life but may have changed it for the better.

(And you may have learnt a bit about me you didn't know before...)