By TAYLOR MORRIS, Student Reporter
What did you do to yourself? What’s wrong with you? What’s up with the limp? These are questions that freshman Madison Ann Wilson has heard throughout her life. Madison was born with diplegic cerebral palsy and was not officially diagnosed till she was 18 months old. She was actually one of the youngest people diagnosed with it at the time. Her disability causes her muscles to become tense and not relax. Furthermore, it affects the right side of her body more than her left, which causes her to limp when she walks. However, according to Madison “I consider myself very blessed because most people with cerebral palsy, their muscles are so severely tense that their tongues are almost paralyzed by it so they can’t speak and most people you see with cerebral palsy are also bound to a wheelchair, but I am pretty mobile. I do walk around campus a lot, I walk with a little bit of a limp, but I get around. ” Madison does not allow her disability to define her or her life. She feels she can truly educate people by sharing her message and spreading positivity by letting people know what she has been through and that it is okay. “I am always open to talk about it,” she said. Madison is a speech and theatre major and a history minor here at Northwestern. She truly adores the theatre and her hope is to one day utilize her skill set to work in the performance industry to become a working actress. Madison wants it to be known that she does appreciate the kindness of others when they help her, but she is independent. She goes by this motto, “I can do everything you can do, I just have my own special way of doing it.”