Elevators.
Oh, elevators. Elevators are central to daily life, especially the life of a daily wheelchair user like me.
However, elevators are a pain to deal with every single day. I have encountered a countless number of elevator issues, some of which I will outline below.
The first thing you need to know is, I have a huge fear of elevators. Now, half of that stems from the fact that I am terrified of being in enclosed spaces, also known as claustrophobia. The second half of this stems from previous terrifying experiences that I have had in elevators. Well, actually, it was just one terrifying experience, but trust me, one was enough.
When I was in 6th grade, I was stuck in an elevator. It was the last day of school. My school had two floors. I was with my best friend and we were headed downstairs to the gym for an end-of-the-year celebration. Then, the elevator shut down. We were stuck for half an hour. We kept pressing the bell button. Nothing. There was no phone in the elevator and our phones had no service. Eventually, the elevator started moving again, and we reached the gym. Since then, I have had very bad luck when it comes to elevators. A few times, elevators have stopped for short periods of time on me.
Then, I get to college. I am currently in my first semester. All of my classes are on the first floor of buildings. Except for one. Ironically, it happens to be the class that I am writing this blog for. On my very first day of classes, the building in which I have this particular class was having fire drill tests. For whatever reason, these tests caused the elevator to shut down. While I was upstairs. On the third floor. I had fifteen minutes to get to my next class. I wheeled as fast as I could back to the classroom I was just in. My professor walked with me to the other elevator in the building. Also, shut down. Then, my professor CARRIED me down the stairs IN my wheelchair. I was able to make it to my next class on time.
Since that day, the elevator has not shut down again, however, it does still have its bad moments. It is so SLOW. It takes like five minutes to travel to each floor. It is also very rickety. By that, I mean that you can feel it shaking side to side as it goes up and down. Aside from that, the only other issues I have with this elevator is people.
I have gotten so many comments from people while waiting for the elevator. One person, who mind you, was not visibly disabled, saw me waiting for the excruciatingly slow elevator, and stood there by me. When it opened, they got in, and asked me, "Oh do you need to use this?" It took everything I had not to say "No, you know, I was thinking of floating up two flights of stairs." No. Instead, I just nodded and got in. A few days later, as I was approaching the elevator, another person was getting in, again not visibly disabled. As I was about to enter, the person sees me, and says "sorry I need this right now" and closes the door in my face. It took me ten minutes to make it upstairs to my class that day.
Anyway, rant over. See you next week.
However, elevators are a pain to deal with every single day. I have encountered a countless number of elevator issues, some of which I will outline below.
The first thing you need to know is, I have a huge fear of elevators. Now, half of that stems from the fact that I am terrified of being in enclosed spaces, also known as claustrophobia. The second half of this stems from previous terrifying experiences that I have had in elevators. Well, actually, it was just one terrifying experience, but trust me, one was enough.
When I was in 6th grade, I was stuck in an elevator. It was the last day of school. My school had two floors. I was with my best friend and we were headed downstairs to the gym for an end-of-the-year celebration. Then, the elevator shut down. We were stuck for half an hour. We kept pressing the bell button. Nothing. There was no phone in the elevator and our phones had no service. Eventually, the elevator started moving again, and we reached the gym. Since then, I have had very bad luck when it comes to elevators. A few times, elevators have stopped for short periods of time on me.
Then, I get to college. I am currently in my first semester. All of my classes are on the first floor of buildings. Except for one. Ironically, it happens to be the class that I am writing this blog for. On my very first day of classes, the building in which I have this particular class was having fire drill tests. For whatever reason, these tests caused the elevator to shut down. While I was upstairs. On the third floor. I had fifteen minutes to get to my next class. I wheeled as fast as I could back to the classroom I was just in. My professor walked with me to the other elevator in the building. Also, shut down. Then, my professor CARRIED me down the stairs IN my wheelchair. I was able to make it to my next class on time.
Since that day, the elevator has not shut down again, however, it does still have its bad moments. It is so SLOW. It takes like five minutes to travel to each floor. It is also very rickety. By that, I mean that you can feel it shaking side to side as it goes up and down. Aside from that, the only other issues I have with this elevator is people.
I have gotten so many comments from people while waiting for the elevator. One person, who mind you, was not visibly disabled, saw me waiting for the excruciatingly slow elevator, and stood there by me. When it opened, they got in, and asked me, "Oh do you need to use this?" It took everything I had not to say "No, you know, I was thinking of floating up two flights of stairs." No. Instead, I just nodded and got in. A few days later, as I was approaching the elevator, another person was getting in, again not visibly disabled. As I was about to enter, the person sees me, and says "sorry I need this right now" and closes the door in my face. It took me ten minutes to make it upstairs to my class that day.
Anyway, rant over. See you next week.
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