I like to think that I am pretty knowledgeable about self-determination. I have been involved with it for over 20 years. I have discovered there is a big difference between knowing a program and living it out. When I started with self-determination I thought I was doing great to simply rollover my traditional services. I was satisfied with that until the pandemic hit and ILS services became virtual. That didn’t work and a lot of hours went unspent. In the name of spending my budget I thought of items that I could spend with SDP funds. I was still missing the point of what was my north star and funding for that. I have now had three annual reviews, three IPPs, and countless IPAs, and two PCPs. In all the paperwork support this, I never identified my north star. I did so by circumstance, not of a plan.
I love to write and I write whenever I can. I write for various newsletters, but I need a greater outlet. So friends, associates and my SDP team urged me to start a block. I have had blogs on spirituality before that went nowhere. I decided to create a new blog as a venue for my writing. I thought about what it would be about. I decided it would be on self-advocacy and self-determination because they are the two things that matter most to me. They fill my time night and day, and I want to educate others in them. I set up my blog at the end of July and since that time it has been the main focus of my life. My annual review was in September and I talked about how having the blog had changed my life, so the IPP funded partially my blog. I had moved a long way from simply rolling over services, but I still didn’t see my north star. I guess I am the last person to know what everyone else already knew. After reading my posts to my blog I discovered what my north star is. Self-advocacy means everything to me and I want to spread the good news of it to as many people as possible.