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“If you look up ‘normal' in the dictionary, there wouldn't be a picture of me there,” 16-year-old Cornelius resident Jamie Mulvihill said.
But she spends much of her time texting her friends on her cell phone. She has a Facebook page. She's a junior in high school, at Charlotte Catholic, has plans to attend Boston University to study psychology and is looking forward to going to her first prom.
She currently does not have a boyfriend. “I had one before,” Jamie explained, “but not right now.”
A normal teenage girl.
But looking at Jamie, you notice her difference. Jamie has cerebral palsy and is in a wheelchair.
Jamie said some people who don't know her refer to her as “the girl in the wheelchair,” but those are “just people who don't know who I am. I want people to not see I'm in a wheelchair and say, like, ‘Hey, Jamie.'”
Jamie said going to high school, for her, is “basically the same as everyone else, but I have to go through more to fit in. It's a challenge, but I think I do it pretty good.
“Like last year, I was at a public school and had a horrible time. I'm a normal kid. At Charlotte Catholic, people are a lot more accepting of it (the wheelchair). They know that it's not what I'm all about. They get it that I have feelings. I'm a normal 16-year-old.”
One difference at school is that Jamie has to take the elevator to get to classes on different floors.
“But if I come in late to class,” Jamie explained, “my teachers understand. They don't give me a hard time or anything.
“I do the same homework as everyone else, the same assignments and tests,” she said. “My problem is that my writing takes a while sometimes. I have really good handwriting. Sometimes, if it's a long assignment, I finish in the library on the computer.”
She did recently have one problem – going to Charlotte Catholic's Homecoming football game. Jamie had to sit on the opponent's side, because the home side was so crowded. She cheered for her football team, and the people around her gave her looks. She said, “Hey, I go here,” and they let her keep cheering.
Jamie said, “At CCHS I'm not afraid to be different anymore. I'm not saying I like being different, but people know who I am, and I'm not afraid to be who I am.”
Events and news
Our town is looking for people to join the Historic Preservation Commission and the Land Development Code Committee. Go to www.cornelius.org for more information.
From 5 to 8 p.m. Monday, the public may drop in to the town's Planning Board meeting at the town hall to comment on the vacation rental policy.
Teaching Talents, a staff art exhibit and sale by the Cornelius Arts Center, will run until Dec. 27. A gallery reception will be from 7 to 9 p.m. Friday. For more information, go to www.creativeartexchange.org.
Lisa Daidone lives in Cornelius. Have an item for her? Write: ldaidone@charlotteobserver.com
