During May-June, 2019, Prkos invited us to share what our day looks like. The text opened the series of over 20 texts by people with disabilities, which in October, 2020 were published in a collection entitled “A Day in My Life”. We present you the text in full…
As of today we start publishing a series of texts entitled “A Day in My Life”, which will be written by people with various disabilities. Our goal is for you to peek for a moment into their inner world and feel it through their pen. We start with the lucid Gere Tripkov and according to the principle “continue” he(we) chooses the next author. We hope to achieve an avalanche effect and publish a book by the end of the year!
6:45 I wake up in shock. I open my eyes and react violently with my every sense. The feeling that something is stepping on my feet is still fresh. For a moment I think to myself: it’s good, it is such a blessing to feel that someone is stepping on your feet at least in a dream. I hear steps on the laminate floor and I wake up from the shock. I realize that it is Felix, our four-legged mustachioed Persian pet, whose day has begun long ago.
7:00 Getting up from bed for a paraplegic is not simple, but compared to people with more severe disabilities it is easier. Thank God for that experience! Not even all mountains are created equal, that is probably why there is not a living soul that lices at the top of the Himalayas! Spasms and cramps are the first challenge, then putting my legs in a position that will support me when I move my body into the wheelchair using my arms. Wheelchair, my faithful friend!
7:10 Finally, I successfully move to the wheelchair, with one leg dancing folk dances from 5 continents at once. They are called tremors or spasms. Moving the upper body forward, lifting it or bending it at the knee – these are the techniques for calming my breakdancing leg. Next stop – the toilet. A very long attempt to empty the bladder. It is one of the biggest morning challenges for every single person with a disability (a result of the paralysis from the waist up).
7:20 Refreshing the face and scraping the tartar. Direction kitchen. Breakfast is the most important thing for a proper start of the day. Sure, this includes a slice or two of dark rye bread, baked according to my recipe… We all love it, but most of all, we love our hairy, irresistible Persian pet Felix. The end crowns the work! And finally, a cup of rich espresso from medium-roasted quality Arabica beans, ground just moments before. A divine smell fills up the room thanks to the heat generated from grinding the grains. Mmmm…Making coffee is a ritual of the rituals that very few people know how to enjoy properly. Every single day is just as wonderful. Enjoyment is a divine thing, the beauty of our being lies in the details.
7:40 Getting dressed. One of the most hated activities I have to do. But even in this I find something positive! Paraplegics and quadriplegics have an advantage over those without disabilities in this activity…We have all the time in the world. Actually, we do not have it, and yet we are forced to have it. The total preparation takes me at least 1 hour a day. If I count the rest of the daily, routine commitments, they take up from 1:30 to 2 hours a day. I wonder if you do anything useful useful during these 2 hours in the day???
7:50 All roads lead to the work responsibilities…
8:00 -12:00 There are no Saturdays without workdays. But Saturdays would be of no use to us, if our work does not fulfill us and makes each day feel like Saturday. Think about it!
12:00 Coffee break, espresso, short to medium, a small cup. I will repeat myself, but every fan of the “black gold” will understand me. Aromatic and with thick foam! Amazing how such an essence, which is even better than the fragrance of the bean, comes out of a mere roasted coffee bean under a pressure of 9 or more bar. Fascinating! Except when it is not, when a barista ruins it with their clumsiness or because they do not feel fulfilled, enlightened or in love with the job they do!
13:00 Training for coaching. Online, with a link between Skopje and Warsaw and a mentor in accordance with the programme of the International Coaching Federation.
15:00 Lunch. Preferably homemade with a starter salad, a soup is welcome, too. Half a glass of homemade wine, intensive red-purple or a glass of water. Water is something we underestimate so much every day. Pity!
16:00 Time to rest, relax before what follows.
17:00 Rehabilitation. A mix of physical exercises, kinesiotherapy and electrotherapy. Music – shower or shower and music, always a great combination. Singing in the shower, loudly. The neighbour has not moved out yet, I guess that speaks about my voice potentials and diaphragm capacity. The bass turned up to eleven!
19:00 Marital sermons or in other words “wait, wait, let me tell you… And… Oh, and…”. When you have a suitable interlocutor, even talking about the influence of dew on the development of the worm population outside the breeding season is not tedious.
21:00 – 23:00 Work hard and become a leader, be lazy and become a slave. It is the best when everyone is asleep and we are alone… with the computer! Word by word, sentence by sentence, page by page. They say that when you do something with love, nothing will stop you from reaching your goal. Exactly that. Although it is late, I am pleased to prepare an innovative Life and Personal Development Program, CoSense (It is a trademark that I protect as intellectual property, if I do say so myself). It is only a matter of time before this project of mine, my embodiment, becomes reality.
23:00 Preparations to use almost 1/3 of the time, the most beautiful part of the day for some people, when they grab the pillow that smells like the person closest to them or their pet, which looks after it while we are not at home. By the way, dreaming is the only thing in which we are not forced to do anything, and it is exactly this inactivity that gives us life and positive energy. Cosmic magic!
23:15 – Good night dear! – uttered gently and complemented by a kiss. The hand never forgets that the person next to me deserves to feel my physical presence, even if it is only holding a lock of hair or the tip of one of the fingers of the upper limb. I am looking at the lit sky over Skopje through the windows. My organ – the sense of sight, slowly surrenders to the darkness created by its companions – the eyelids. Everything becomes irrelevant, insignificant, when we enter the first phase of the dream. The settings of the human being are deactivated. By themselves. Life, you are beautiful !!!
23:20 Good night friends!
About the author
Gere Tripkov is a disability-rights activist, a creator, Life & Executive Coach and a MSc in International Relations at the University of Warsaw, where he is also pursuing a doctorate.
His association “Equality” Skopje, works on the establishment and appropriate treatment of people with disabilities and is involved in initiatives aimed at the inclusion of people belonging to marginalized groups in the society.
He works as a Life Coach, according to the program of the International Coaching Federation – Coaching Academy SET (Poland).
The experience in diplomacy, the work in state institutions of the highest rank, working in simultaneously working in the non-governmental sector – creative industries in the last 10 years, as well as his personal experience as a person with disability are combined in the character traits of a dedicated person on a mission to create long-lasting positive changes in the society.
