I am 16 years of age for a small town none of you have probably heard of. I love sports of pretty much all kinds except for soccer. I'm not really a soccer fan. Sports that I like are wrestling, football, basketball, hockey, just to name a few. But specifically what I would like the interview to be centered around is the fact that I have disability or condition. I guess you can call it known as cerebral palsy
So I guess that leads me to a second question, which is, how has cerebral palsy made you into the person you are today? How has it strengthened you as a human being? Anyway, Zach, thanks for your openness in general, just to talk about this issue. I think it's something that we should obviously shine some light on in the world
Zach Hillard
@Chief2 · 4:54
I might be a little bit slower than normal like others or just extra time in general to get to class because I walk a little slower. So I have a whole bunch of different accommodations that make sure that I can succeed in school. Also in school I have like holders because I have crutches that I use to help walk around. And so throughout the school, in my classrooms, in my locker area, I have these holders
Hey, Zach, thanks for walking us through all of that and for describing sort of in detail what your day can look like and the sort of accommodations that you have. It's really important that those accommodations are met. I was a teacher, I think, so making sure that your teachers are adhering to those accommodations is also super duper important. But it sounds like you're being taken care of. Ah, the bullying thing, man
Zach Hillard
@Chief2 · 4:50
But with all the operations that I've taken, another benefit of the surgeries that comes with the condition is as much as I love being weighted on, you know, when I'm in a wheelchair and not having to move and do all that, I love when the doctors say, you can start walking again. After I recover from a legit tree, they say you can get up and walk. And it feels so good
In terms of your surgeries, I'm curious, how many have you had? I know that cerebral palsy is going to manifest itself differently for different people, and with that it's going to come a number of surgeries injuries that they either have to or don't have to have. But in your case, how many have you had?
Zach Hillard
@Chief2 · 4:04
I don't know how long that recovery time was, but that is no joke. The amount of pain and the amount of scarring, I never, ever want to do that again. That was not good for me. I mean, it was good for me. It actually helped me out a lot. But in terms of the pain tolerance was pushed in terms of recovering from that oh, crazy
Zach Hillard
@Chief2 · 1:15
But it didn't compare to the double. Pharma Osteotomy for sure, but definitely a tie for it's up there. It's definitely up there with the hardest one. I wanted to add that in to give you some more context and yeah, I'll be happy to take more questions. Maggie
phil spade
@Phil · 0:55
Zach, you mentioned in your last response that you can take questions until you have to go to college. And that got me thinking about college. And I'm not sure where you are in the process, but I'd love to know, are you still a couple of years away or is this something that is on the horizon? Where are you in the process of selecting a college? What schools might you be looking at and are you settled on what you may want to study while in college?
Zach Hillard
@Chief2 · 1:12
At the moment, I am looking into a liberal arts college and I want to study broadcast journalism. Because as you probably know, my dream is to become a broadcaster, a play by play commentator of sorts. That's as basketball games, football games. And of course, if it were me, my ultimate dream once becoming a broadcaster would be to do wrestling, pro wrestling to be exact. So yeah, that's where I'm at right now