Out of the Blue - The Podcast: Finding the Way Forward
Out of the Blue-the Podcast features interviews with inspirational survivors of traumatic out of the blue events who have overcome unimaginable challenges, sharing their stories of resilience and triumph. By sharing these stories, "Out of the Blue" aims to create a community where others who have faced similar hardships can find solace and strength as together, we find the way forward.
Out of the Blue - The Podcast: Finding the Way Forward
Everyday Advocacy: Meghan Johnson on Living Fully With Cerebral Palsy
What happens when we refuse to be defined by limitations? Meghan Johnson's story captivates from the first moment she shares her infectious laugh and wise perspective on living with cerebral palsy. This isn't just another inspirational tale—it's a masterclass in finding authentic joy through life's unexpected challenges.
Growing up as an identical twin, Meghan was fortunate to have supportive teachers and friends who recognized her potential early. Yet she also encountered those who tried to make her feel like she didn't belong. Instead of internalizing these negative experiences, she transformed them into motivation, developing an unshakable sense of self-worth that radiates through every word she speaks.
When Megan explains her spastic quadriplegic cerebral palsy, she does so with remarkable clarity and humor. "My body does a lot of things I don't want it to do," she laughs, describing everyday moments that might frustrate others but that she approaches with levity. Her perspective on accessibility challenges—like being charged an extra $200 for a concert just because she needed a personal care assistant—illuminates the additional planning required for activities many take for granted.
The conversation takes a profound turn when Meghan discusses gratitude and joy. She articulates how facing significant challenges can actually expand one's capacity for gratitude in ways that might not otherwise be possible. "When you're stuck in a routine... sometimes when those monumental things happen, it will just expand your views and fundamentally change you as a person," she observes with wisdom beyond her years.
As an "everyday advocate," Meghan doesn't speak from stages to thousands, but her lived experience demonstrates that people with disabilities can lead rich, expressive, joyful lives. Her relationship with her young nephew beautifully illustrates this—he's curious about her wheelchair, eager to help, and completely comfortable with difference because that's what he knows.
Perhaps most striking is Meghan's insight about disability as a "gift." She clarifies: "It's not like 'oh, I'm so grateful this happened to me.' It's like I'm grateful that it has given me this perspective on life." This distinction offers listeners a nuanced understanding of how hardship can transform into wisdom.
Ready to be inspired? Follow Meghan's journey and discover how choosing joy transforms everything.
Cerebral Palsy Foundation: https://www.cerebralpalsyfoundation.org/
Follow CPF on Instagram: @yourcpf
Follow Meghan on Instagram: @princessmeg1998
Out Of The Blue:
For more: outoftheblue-thepodcast.org
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Welcome to Out of the Blue the podcast, a platform dedicated to celebrating inspirational stories of people from all walks of life, overcoming life-changing experiences, who have found their way forward. I'm your host, vernon West, and my co-host for today's episode is my daughter, jackie West, who, along with being our social media and marketing manager, is also a professional musician and Reiki healer. And I want to especially thank you, our listeners, for joining us here today and giving us your precious time and attention. We know just how valuable that is, and please remember to smash that like button and hit that subscribe button, because everything helps to get the word out there.
Speaker 2:Today's guest is Megan Johnson of Burnsville, minnesota, a writer, artist and advocate who has never let anything, including her cerebral palsy diagnosis at birth define her limits. Diagnosis at birth to find her limits. Growing up as an identical twin, megan was supported by teachers, therapists and close friends who helped her recognize her potential early on. Whether she was using adaptive tech to write or finding creative ways to join in gym class, megan approached life with determination and humor. After high school, she returned to volunteer in the same special education program that once supported her, helping students unlock their own abilities using the strategies that worked for her. Though college sparked her interest in writing and media, she quickly realized her path wasn't a traditional one. Megan is now focused on creating poetry and art, building a life that reflects her values of independence, authenticity and self-expression. She may not speak from a stage, but her story is a powerful form of advocacy in itself. We're honored to welcome Megan Johnson to Out of the Blue, the podcast. Hi, megan, and welcome to Out of the Blue.
Speaker 1:Hello, thank you for having me Welcome to Out of the Blue.
Speaker 2:Thank you. So what brings you to our show with Megan? I think I pretty much spelled that out, but I want to hear it from you.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that was a very nice intro. Thank you for that. Yeah, I was always a very good student in school. My teachers were very supportive and I had a lot of quality friendships, but also some people who, like wanted me to believe that I didn't belong. But that was kind of just like strengthened me to become better, you know, just like the motivation to just prove all that wrong and just prove to myself that I'm capable of more than I think I am. And I did have like some stories about, like elementary school.
Speaker 1:There was this boy who would make a weird noise at me every day and I didn't know what that meant, so I never responded to him at all and I'm glad I never did, because I think it was at a music concert. And he comes up to me and he goes oh, you can talk. And I said, yeah, yeah, I can talk. And this is the way you should talk to someone who you don't think can talk either, because you don't actually know what their situation is like. If you're not memorable, that's totally fine. It doesn't mean your brain is gone.
Speaker 2:So you overcame all that stuff in elementary school and then you built up a strong sense of your own value, because people that supported you recognized that, yeah, what you had like that's.
Speaker 1:It's important that you recognized it too my teachers were like very good at pointing out my strengths and that just made me want to do better for them, like perform better for myself and my teachers that were rooting for me.
Speaker 3:Yeah, beautiful.
Speaker 2:That's awesome.
Speaker 3:Can I ask? I don't know much about cerebral palsy. Yeah, I would love to know more about what it is.
Speaker 1:So what it is? It is considered brain damage to where the signal from your legs doesn't like transfer to your brain to tell your legs to like walk and it affects your muscle tone. So mine is high muscle tone. Other people can have low muscle tone which makes them them like loosey-goosey. I'm like very tight in mostly my legs. I have spastic quadriplegic cerebral palsy, so that affects all four of my lips. My arms are more mobile than my legs. Like I have more range of motion and my body does a lot of things that I don't want it to do. I drop things a lot because I'm just like if I'm super focused, I'm like bringing the remote to my tray, I'll like bringing the remote to my tray, I'll be like almost too focused on it and then I'll drop it.
Speaker 2:You know it's really. I love seeing you laugh. You know you're very. The way you look at things is very great.
Speaker 1:I mean that I have a good sense of humor, otherwise I think I would cry about everything totally what were the first times you when you started to feel like you were an artist?
Speaker 2:what kind of things started happening?
Speaker 1:my favorite subject in school was always English and writing, and I was very good at it. But I just didn't want being told what to write about and having an opinion on like persuasive essays, because I'm not really about like changing someone's mind. I'm about like sharing a story and helping people to see the value in myself and themselves. Like using my stories to paint a picture of how people can learn how to love themselves more.
Speaker 2:Love it. I love that. When you used adaptive tech, was that something you can tell us about?
Speaker 1:Yes, I first started in elementary school using a program called Co-Writer and that was basically just what our phones do our smart phones do with the word prediction, and it was just trying to make it more efficient for me to type. The thing is that, as time went on, we have all of these features in our smartphones, so it's actually a lot more efficient for me to just use that instead of like having a PCA, like set up dragon and my microphone and making sure everything is all set up wow, yeah, then that shows like that the powerful thing about iPhones.
Speaker 1:They've come a long way, but we also have a long way to go. We know that Siri and Alexa is not always the most. They don't recognize your voice very well. That's also what I'm doing with Cerebral Palsy Foundation. I am participating in studies to help them with that, like figure out how to make their technology more accessible with people like harder to understand voices like mine, you still use adaptive tech for writing.
Speaker 2:Yes, what were the first things you came out with?
Speaker 1:I started trying to do songwriting in 2019, and I realized that I wasn't as good with writing songs as when I did it with just the lens of writing poetry. I feel like when I had the mindset of writing a song, I was like, oh, it has to flow, the cadence has to like match. But with poetry I'm not as like strict with that. I'm just like as long as it rhymes and it sounds nice.
Speaker 2:I really get that I really do, so I know you also love music, right?
Speaker 1:Yes, as you can see, I'm a big fan of the Struts which Lizzy from one of your previous episodes is also a big fan of them, Lizzy Sunshine as we call her. I have their poster right here in the back of me.
Speaker 2:I see it, the stripes.
Speaker 1:I actually do have a story of one of the last times I went to see them and first thing I do, which is like where I get my tickets for the venue in Minnesota, where I get my tickets for the venue in Minnesota, they told me that I had to get another VIP ticket and just I have a PCA accompany me, so I had to pay like an extra $200 just because I needed assistance, like getting out of my van and like through the crowds and stuff, which is really not fair. Like I'm fine with paying for my PTAs, like general admission ticket, like obviously I'm gonna pay for that because it's something that I wanted to do.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, that's a total inconvenience that a lot of us don't think about.
Speaker 1:Yeah, those are the things that I've become used to with having an disability. Sometimes you have to put up with those things.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I definitely know that. I'll know about that. I had a. It takes more planning. You know you have to put a little bit more time and you got to be really methodical about it. Yeah, it's a lot just to do, but you know it's it's worth it just to do. But you know it's worth it though, right?
Speaker 1:Yeah, because that's when you get like a break from all those other things that you put up with for like two hours of fun.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I follow you on Instagram and I see you having a lot of fun times posting some great things.
Speaker 2:Yes, I always make sure I have a lot of fun and that's very inspiring. You know, just because when we all go through our lives and we were talking about this the other day at another podcast we were having about how appreciation, how some people can go their whole lives without anything really major happening and they think they're grateful, they actually feel that they are grateful, but unless something fundamentally big happens, you don't get that incredible sense of gratitude that somebody who's been through some tough experiences. They have a higher sense of gratitude. I think the other day we said it was an explosion of gratitude. So would you feel that? You know? I think that just seems to be why you're smiling. I know you are a person that has a lot of gratitude.
Speaker 1:Because I think it almost like helped me increase my self-worth, because when people don't give me that respect, I have to learn how to give it to myself, vernon?
Speaker 3:am I understanding this right? So let's say you're going through life and nothing really remarkable is happening, so you would think that you're grateful for things. But unless you like, wake up to some of the remarkableness of what actually is happening in everyone's life, then the amount of gratitude can be even greater.
Speaker 1:That's okay, I definitely feel that what I kind of want to add to that is when you're not, like, stuck in a routine and everything is always relatively the same, you're going to get stuck in that rut, stuck in that repetitiveness and sometimes, when those monumental things happen, it will just expand your views and it fundamentally changes you as a person.
Speaker 2:Wow, that was perfectly said. It definitely expands your whole, explodes your gratitude. I mean, it's really what I, the gentleman said it on the podcast we did yesterday and it kind of blew my mind because I really realized that my own self had that explosion of gratitude. It's like I'm not saying you can't go through life and have no big things and not get that explosion of gratitude. For example, I think the entire world, the pandemic was a huge thing that affected everyone and I think if you really look at it, that's one of those explosive things and if you get through, you know you could have that explosion of gratitude from that alone.
Speaker 1:You don't really need to have any other thing, but if you pay attention and there are certain people you know they're very sick and they have to be very careful whenever they leave their homes and they don't want to get sick because that could mean like a long time in the hospital, right, and I think people kind of like woke up to that it definitely expanded people's awareness of each other.
Speaker 1:Yeah, unique experiences with being human and one thing I want to say. Like the day program that I go to, yes, it does take a very special person to actually have the desire to want to work with people with disabilities. Do it, they become part of the family and they experience disability in a way that they would have never experienced it without that job experience.
Speaker 2:Such a good example, stephen Hawkins.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:That's an example of someone that he was definitely using adaptive tech to communicate and, speaking of the goal of Above, that had he was definitely using adaptive tech to communicate.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and speaking, I have to grow above and beyond just for people to like understand how smart you are.
Speaker 2:It's a perfect example that you may not be, according to other people, like they may call us handicapped for one reason or another, but what's going on in our heads, what we're learning, is extremely valuable and the kind of wisdom that comes out of someone who's been through the kind of things like yourself, people that have gone through anything like Stephen Hawkins. They've become unbelievably important, I think, to the to development of our human race. Really. I mean you, you're on the.
Speaker 2:I feel like what I learned about out of the blue is that when I interview different people from different walks of life with different, different challenges or whatever it is what y'all talking about, I feel like I'm talking to war heroes on the front line. Yeah, honestly that I should be saying thank you for your service. Yeah, because not to denigrate our warriors, to go to protect our freedom, and the Army and Navy, marines, et cetera. But I think that we were greatly, in a way, wasting a huge resource by not paying attention to the warriors, such as yourself, who are fighting the big, biggest battle of all and coming out the other end of it, we're not only surviving but thriving. So I think it's an amazing example of resilience. But I want to hear your thoughts. You know, how do you think about. What do you think about out of the blue things? How do you think this? What does it think it means? I think they're wonderful.
Speaker 1:I think that even when it's something tragic that happens, something beautiful can always come out of it, like even like when a loved one dies. It's like you find little moments where they're with you and you never forget about them. When those things happen, it just like expands your mind and gives you more empathy for people that you might not even know there's so much we can learn.
Speaker 2:You know we can learn so much from each other and I mean I'm learning so much just talking to you now and it's inspiring me as well, with that gratitude that I can see in your face when you talk. It's just really something very special that is beyond precious. It's something that I feel like it's I can't even give it words. It's hard to articulate, but it's something very special that promotes the benevolence of life itself. As tough as things can be, the love inside of a human being never dies. I mean your love light. That's what I feel like I'm seeing with you. It's your love light.
Speaker 1:And it's very important for me to feel what I would call an everyday advocate, where I'm not going to be like on stage in front of thousands of people because that's not who I am, right.
Speaker 2:But your life is the.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I can live like by me living and like teaching people that, like people with disabilities can't go out, they can't have fun, they can't like express their ideas and opinions what an example, what a power of example you are for that.
Speaker 2:So tell me more about some things you have done. What have you been doing lately for your expression?
Speaker 1:Lately I've just been hanging out with my family. I have a nephew. He just graduated preschool oh boy, and it's just wonderful having him and like me being the first example of like someone who has a disability. And he's like not afraid of like my wheelchair at all. He's like he wants to know how it works, he likes the horn, he knows how to like unbuckle my like tie-downs in in the van. He can help me with that. He can help me like get a drink. He does all the things that he doesn't need to do because he just wants to be helpful and like he sees what I'm doing all the time that's beautiful.
Speaker 2:That's bringing the best out of your nephew, for sure.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:He sounds like a superstar.
Speaker 1:And I am really proud of the person that he's becoming just through that one little talk.
Speaker 2:I read somewhere or something, something really important. You should do it slowly, take your time. I think we're in such a rush, people are in such a hurry and everyone's attention spans have become shorter and smaller and squished. So we need to open that up. We need to come back to it.
Speaker 1:Honestly, I think that's why generally people just don't know how to treat disabled people, like I've had people come up and pet me before like a knock, or they'll grab me by the shoulders and say like god bless you. I'm like thanks, god bless you too yeah, like so random you. It's like if you want to pray for me to be healed, I guess, then I just have to pray for you to be healed too, I love it.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I mean, I bet you're subject to a lot of people's projections too.
Speaker 1:The way they perceive me is the way that they treat me, and it's like I don't have to spend all my time probing it wrong. You definitely don't and, like you know, I have a very interesting sense of style. It's very colorful, very. I was on the bus and this lady's like oh, you look so pretty, is it your birthday? I was like no, I'm just pretty yeah.
Speaker 2:That's really good answer. That's right, you certainly are, you know. So I'm hearing your story and you went through everything in your life growing up through school and dealing with those things, and then you went back to now. You're helping people, you're teaching people in special education. Are you doing that now?
Speaker 1:I did for like a year and a half. I want to say I went back and like into the special ed room that I went in when I was doing my homework in high school, and a lot of the times I feel like some of the teachers in the staff were just kind of like give them the answer or like point them to the answer, and I was like no, I'm gonna teach you how to do this the way that I learned how to do this myself, and it kind of brightens up your day a little bit too. It's like I do deal with anxiety, and it's mostly just from me, like having to be alone. I'm just kind of learning how to bring that ease back instead of like feeling anxious about it for my long time. I'm really looking to have like a good core group of friends that help out with that too you have a good bunch of friends, don't you?
Speaker 2:yeah, that is so important for everybody. You know your value of your, of the people in your life, is not lost. I mean that to me. If I'm going to say one thing, I see a thing connecting all the people that I've spoken to, who have come from all kinds of situations, but if they have family and friends that love them and they love in their lives, I don't think there's. It's almost like you're.
Speaker 2:I feel bad for people who don't, because when I was in the hospital, I was in there for a good long time fighting for my life and when I finally realized I was going to make it at least that's what it looked like after a long battle, then I started feeling like I wanted to pay it forward, and what I noticed was that there were people in the hospital that I lived at practically for almost a year, that the ones that were doing well had people in their lives. The ones who were not doing well were just alone, and I would. You know I try to talk to them, but I thought maybe I could come up with a way to help them through the podcast. That's what I think this is. That's why I think you are going to be able to help others in your situation to see how you're thriving.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I actually want to show you. Do you know the brand Funko Pop, like? They're like the little little doll, like caricatures. You can make them into yourself yourself. And they just came out with the wheelchairs. I don't know if you can see her in there oh cool, I love it you yeah, it's me so cool, that's really cool I don't think it's a cool thing that they came out with wheelchairs. To be more inclusive. Everybody wants that, everybody wants to have their own.
Speaker 3:Barbie and even from like I'm not totally sure the whole thing about dolls and the myths involved in like, in like you know, the representation of a doll in literature, but like they are um, seen as um intuition and magical. And yeah, so it's. It's very meaningful in our you know, the history of of being humans to to have this, this symbol. It's meaningful to have a doll in your life and then to be the character you. Yeah, that's pretty powerful it is.
Speaker 2:It is. It's awesome. So you are definitely living a life that I think is thriving. I have to say there are plenty of people out there who don't do as much. Have as much fun as you do.
Speaker 1:I thank you for reminding me of that as well, because sometimes I think that people don't view my life that way. Seeing that you don't pity me for no reason is nice.
Speaker 2:Yep, people tend to write, write people off, you know they yeah they judge us by judge a book by its cover. They don't open it up, they don't see what there is there.
Speaker 3:I think that's also by the understanding of how, like you, can be useful. You know you miss a lot in a person if you just look at like what, if you just try to evaluate like how they can be useful to you.
Speaker 1:That's one of my, the things that like drew me to the stress as well, because they have a song it's called Freak Like you. Stress as well because they have a song it's called Freak Like you and they have a lyric. It says we all sing from the same pages of books. You can't judge when they cover.
Speaker 3:So good.
Speaker 1:That's cool. And it's good to remember that, no matter how different we are, no matter where we come from, we are all the same and we deserve like the same level of respect, like at the same time. I'm not going to beg you to like see me as like an actual human being. I don't have to like put up with that If you're not going to give it to me.
Speaker 2:You're letting your light shine, megan. It's something that's going to bring something to the world that's unique, special and powerful. I really think you are a powerful example of human resilience and and really joy. You know, the biggest thing that happens, I think, with gratitude is joy. You open up the channels to understand.
Speaker 1:And people forgot what the word joy actually means. It doesn't mean that your life is on time and remote and perfect. It means that you make a choice.
Speaker 2:I love that Beautiful.
Speaker 2:It's true, it's true. You know joy is so powerful. But to access joy you have to get pretty deep into life, you have to. Joy is a very deep feeling and very powerful feeling. I mean mean, whenever I've experienced joy, it's, it's something almost uncontrollable. I mean, I think the first time I experienced joy listening to music, I was a little young guy which should have listened to a band for the first time and they started singing all these big harmonies and stuff and I started my eyes started making water coming out pouring out my eyes.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm 14 years old, I'm going. What's going on here? Why am I all crying? And then I started laughing and crying at the same time I was like what? Is this you. That is joy, man. It's a powerful emotion. More than an emotion, it's something spiritual.
Speaker 1:And like one of the other things of joy is like I've had plenty of experiences where I feel like I should not be doing as well as I am. Like one time in the summer I fell down the stairs at a grad party in my chair and there just happened to be like this huge dude right there who could save me from hitting my face on the pavement. You know, not many people would be able to like hoist a 300 pound wheelchair back up and make sure I'm not dead, like, so like that's enough reason for me to believe that, like God exists, you know, and I love telling people about these stories that happen to be possibly more often than they should, but it's like if I don't laugh about them, then what am I going to do?
Speaker 2:You've got to laugh Exactly. So that's the I'm serious. That's the key to success in life learning how to laugh.
Speaker 3:Does that tie into the first episode with Wendy? It kind of does, yeah, because she's a comedian and I just kind of thought about, like the first episode that we did with Out of the Blue is with this comedian, wendy Liebman, and I was just wondering if, like laughter helped her heal from her Out of the the blue experience absolutely, I can tell you right now.
Speaker 2:She says that a lot. One of the things that wendy said was uh, she healed at the speed of love and I find that yeah, I find that to be very um right on, I mean it's.
Speaker 1:You can't say it much clearer than that and when those things happen, you can like feel in a different way than you would have if those things never would have happened, like I believe that you become a better person when those like negative experiences happen to you.
Speaker 2:Becoming a better person, without a doubt great to remember yeah, you're saying a lot of very wise things today, megan you know I I'm an old soul.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think that's accurate, you are I feel like it's not just today no no that's the only reason I'm pretty able to make it this far.
Speaker 2:This is the stuff that you've got in your personal bank heart account that you've come from living. You know, you accumulate wisdom and you accumulate good sense of humor. Those are the things that come about if you're really paying attention and you've got that gratitude which you have, the fact that you will. Well, life is something else. You know what I mean. We're all in the same boat, we're all dealing with the same thing, even if you don't know it. I mean we're all heading down.
Speaker 1:When people say, like my disability is a gift, I don't think people understand what that actually means. It's not like oh, I'm so grateful that this happened to me. It's like I'm grateful that it has given me this perspective on life.
Speaker 3:Yes, you're grateful that it's given you this perspective.
Speaker 1:Yeah, giving it has. You're grateful that it's given you this perspective. Yeah, I don't think I would be the same person if I didn't have a cerebral palsy, you know right, that's true.
Speaker 2:Everything contributes to who you are, and who you are is something very special and yeah.
Speaker 1:I like the ring too.
Speaker 2:You are Princess Meg.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:I think that fits you perfectly.
Speaker 1:I like being her. She's cool.
Speaker 2:And before we say bye, I just want to say remind anybody I'm going to put some links for Megan at the end of the show so you can check out Megan's Instagram. You want to truly be surprised. Not just surprised, but inspired, I meant. And if you want to see someone living life, follow Megan on Instagram Megan the Princess. You will be inspired. And I just want to say thank you so much. Megan've brought us such some like a lot of sunshine.
Speaker 2:Just like your friend lizzie, you brought a lot of sunshine to us, to our lives, and I think you will do so to all those listeners out there who will be tuning in to hear megan, the princess, princess, meg and um tell us all about the inspirational things that make her smile so infectious. You have a very infectious smile, megan.
Speaker 2:It got me in a news article. Yeah, there you go. There it is, and whenever you see that smile, it lights the room up. It's a very wonderful smile and I want to thank you so much for sharing your story with us today. And, like I said, you're in the out of the blue family, megan. For better or for worse, we're in your life. We're mostly better, we're, we're not. We're going to bring lots of more sunshine to each other's lives. That's what it it's about.
Speaker 1:We need more sunshine in here, that's right, megan, we need more sunshine.
Speaker 2:So love to you, megan, much gratitude, see you soon and thank you for joining us. Thank you so much for joining us.
Speaker 1:Thank you so much for having me. It was so nice to meet you, let let's say bye to our viewers.
Speaker 2:Bye everybody. Thanks for joining us and we'll see you next time on out of the Blue, the podcast Hosted by me, vernon West, co-hosted by Jacqueline West, edited by Joe Gallo, music and logo by Vernon West III. Have an Out of the Blue story of your own you'd like to share? Reach us at info at outofthebluephen the podcast dot org. Subscribe to out of the blue on apple podcasts, spotify or wherever you get your podcasts, and on our website out of the blue hyphen the podcast dot org. You can also check us out on patreon for exclusive content.