My brain tumor"I am not an animal, I am a human being!" - The Elephant Man I'm different, so accept me. Even though I have a physical disability, I am still a human being. When I was four years old, I had a brain tumor. The operation left me with a paralyzed arm, a crossed eye and a deaf ear. To make matters worse, the paralyzed arm was also my writing hand and I had to learn to be right-handed. When I was transferred from North Shore Hospital to the Rusk Institute for Rehabilitation in New York, I was taught how to use a wheelchair and was fitted with a brace that extended from my hips to my ankles . After a year of imprisonment, I started school. At school, I saw the other children walking and I knew I should be able to walk too. My therapist, Phil Koch, gave me a walker and cut the bars that connected the corset to my hips to allow me to walk. Over the years, I became a rebel and often disagreed with my elders. If I didn't like something, I fought until I won. For example, when I started Stewart School, I had to wear a helmet for protection. I hated it because I knew I could walk without it. From third grade to fifth grade, I protested by wearing the helmet. I continued to fight, but I knew I needed an event that would show others the injustice of wearing helmets. This happened on my field day in fourth grade. I was about to run the hundred meters when my assistant, Mr. Maddan, insisted that we had to go in to collect my helmet. When I came back, the race was over and I was angry. I refused to participate in the rest of the events in protest. When I got home, I called my neighborhood friends and asked them to come help me destroy the helmet. For twenty minutes we played baseball with the helmet and my metal crutch. We just destroyed it. Events like this helped me show people that I can be normal. I am now entering my tenth year since the operation, but its effects continue. After eleven surgeries, I still look weird and my walking is affected, but I'm still trying to be normal.