How I stumbled my way to 30ish - Written by Ceri Davis
Hello, my name is Ceri. I come from a small village in Pembrokeshire near the seaside town of Tenby, Wales. I’m 29 years old and I have dyspraxia.
But let’s start at the beginning. Way back in time: 1997, the year before Google was invented. Yes, I’m that old! I was having a great time. We were on our first family holiday. It was me and my mummy and daddy. I’m not even 2 yet. Wow, and this is the best time I’ve ever had in my whole entire life. We’re in Butlin's Minehead in the swimming pool and all the big boys and girls are climbing up the water slide. They’re so big and so clever, I’m going to be just like them and climb to the very top. If the lifeguard could just stop blowing that noisy whistle, I could just concentrate and get to the …. Ouch! “Mummy!”
Before I could even get to the top, my feet had slid out from under me and my chin had hit the slide on the way down. I don’t know what I’d done, but it hurt, and I know that it’s bad because still to this day, I remember my mum’s face and the way she wailed ‘GARY’ at my dad when she picked me up and that made me cry even more. A few sticky stitches, a swimming pool ban and a handful of days later. I was right as rain and ready to take the bull by the horns. I won’t be doing that again in a hurry! Well or so I thought, that was just the beginning.
Now let’s fast-forward a few years, a new millennium, a new house, a new school and new friends. All at once! I’m so excited to start my new school that before I know it my knee has seen several stairs before I have. It’s the first day and we’re late. Is a sentence that not only sums up the 1st day of school but the entirety of my life. I can’t say it got better from there because it got worse. At 7, I went over the handlebars of my new scooter and scraped my nose. At 8, I fell over someone at school and broke in half my big front tooth.
At 9, I came off my bike and gained a leg full of gravel. At 14, I broke my collarbone running down the stairs at a museum. Maybe that is why you shouldn’t run in a museum. I fell over so many times that I learned how to counter-balance myself when I started to fall. But that didn’t stop me from giving myself a concussion by just simply sanding up in my maisonette bedroom.
The list goes on, and I continue to injure myself every year. Even up until 2021, when I broke my foot, and 2022, when I broke my other foot. As a dyspraxic person. I have learned that, no matter what in life, you will always fall or hit obstacles. Sometimes you will recover quickly and get back on your feet again and other times you’ll take a little longer to recover, but you’ll always heal. Enough determination will get you anywhere. My favourite phrase will always be ‘If at first you don't succeed, try, try again.” That, and start as you mean to go on, I guess, in my case anyway. With that being said, I’m off to stumble my way to 40ish!
