Ryan Manriquez shares a funny memory about dating with spinal muscular atrophy (SMA), when a romantic night turned into a crash course in wheelchair driving. He reflects on awkward moments, encouragement, and the unexpected respect that comes with learning the ropes.
Transcript
All awkward situations have a hint of being funny.
Whenever I have a person over that I’m seeing, and maybe we want to, you know, watch a movie and we get in bed, it’s always the task of, “OK, now we have to move my wheelchair out of the bedroom to go plug it in.”
And I’m in bed, so I can’t do that part. The advice that I give to my partner is, “Well, just hop in it.” Right? “Get in the chair, and you can just drive it around and it’ll probably be less of a risk of running over your toes or anything like that.”
So the funniest thing that I’ve ever experienced when having a romantic encounter is just watching my partner try to drive my wheelchair out from my bedroom to my living room, trying not to run into any walls, trying not to scrape the foot plate, or, you know, break an armrest.
And I’m giving motivation from the bed saying, “You can do this. You’re doing such a great job.” And I think they realize just the level of skill that it takes to drive a wheelchair.
It’s almost a newfound level of respect that I think is just hilarious. So, you know, I haven’t had too many walls be damaged in that area. And I’m thankful for that. But that’s probably one of my fondest memories in a romantic situation.
