Margie

You have a B.A. in communications. You've graduated from a fantastic university with distinction and gained a Masters in Fine Arts. You're well spoken, intelligent, and have had your poetry featured in an acclaimed online community.

But every prospective employer only sees your wheelchair.
Such are the difficulties that Margie, a 29 year old graduate from Hofsta University with cerebral palsy, faces every day in her quest for employment.

Margie attended the Henry Viscardi school, a school for students with physical disabilities, from sixth grade until her graduation in 2004. She excelled in her classes, made lifelong friends, and formulated her plan for continuing her education at Dowling College. She dreamed of becoming a radio personality, and completed her first college experience with a Bachelor's in communications and a minor in English. Due to complications arising from back problems during these years, Margie was unable to work a part time job and go to school. But she wasn't worried.

“I thought if I got a good education and put together a solid resume based on that, then my lack of work experience wouldn't really matter that much,” she says of her time in college.

But it was also during this time that Margie stumbled across her first solid barrier: transportation. At her radio internship with a local station, Margie was put on phone and office duties. She watched other interns attend different events and grow their name, but due to the fact that she does not drive she was unable to join them.

“I didn't much want to do radio after that.”

One professor at Dowling, a superlative educator who has been a driving influence in many students' lives, pushed her to go to grad school. Margie, deciding that the job market wasn't that great anyway, went to Hofstra to focus on her poetry. She graduated in December of 2013, and has been trying to find a job ever since.

Margie reports that this is a common problem among her friends with physical disabilities.

“We're no different than anyone else,” she said. “We want to work, to contribute. One of my friends has a degree in teaching and can't even get a subbing job because half the schools that call her aren't accessible. We were so naïve when we graduated high school.”

Despite the difficulties, Margie is determined not to be deterred. She spends her days scouring the internet for possible employment, babysitting her adorable nephews, and making connections in the job market. She is also attending physical therapy to develop her muscles and no longer be restricted to her chair. She brainstorms ideas for new poems and stories, but admits “My confidence has gone down a little” in terms of her ability.

We have several links below to her wonderful poems. If you read nothing else today, please check out her prose piece, “Letter to My Younger Self.” If it doesn't affect you in some way, I'd suggest contacting the police immediately because your soul is missing.

Letter To My Younger Self


Margie's poems featured on GimpGirl