LeftyByDefault.com – Laura Overstreet

My grandmother passed away very late at night on September 25, 2011. My grandma was an awesome woman who occasionally made me want to scream, and I was occasionally the heavy with her in the past few years. I came into my identity as a hard ass crip chick and she became more and more [...]

Lately, I have felt silenced and trapped.  Indeed, I realize now that these are feelings that I have long had but only in the past few years have I felt empowered and knowledgable enough to release them. However, I cannot – at this time anyway – write the words and expose my truth in its [...]

My first semester of teaching has reached its end. I have spent the last week in something of a fog of mindless activities, largely coming off of such a mindful few months. I have learned, and will continue to learn, that new chapters in the books of our lives hardly turn out to be what [...]

Social media. It is a way of life for most of us these days. Who would have ever conceived of common usage of the word “tweet?” Now we use it as a verb and we’re not even chirping like little birds! Social media is a big stinking deal. Even my mom’s on Facebook, people. This [...]

Monday I put on my well-worn disability awareness speaker hat and spoke to a college class about ableism, able-bodied privilege. (Well, it’s not really a hat but more of a speaker voice I tune. It’s only slightly different than my usual voice. I can’t command it, it just happens.) It was a human services class [...]

I am the Maid of Honor for one of my best friend’s, Johanna’s, wedding coming up August 1st – woohoo! I am very honored that she asked me and looking forward to the big day. Getting a Maid of Honor dress has been a little more difficult, simply because I need separates and sizing is [...]