Disability won't stop Ryan Benoit from reaching for stars

Ryan Benoit has a lot of dreams. The trouble is the 22-year-old is having trouble deciding which of them to pursue right now.

He's considered getting his master's degree, working for a consulting company or a sports team or expanding his own business.

“It's pretty cool,” said Benoit, who graduated from Laurentian University's sports administration program last June. “I think anything in life is possible. We can do pretty much anything we want. That's kind of how I look at it.”

But Benoit knows achieving those dreams won't come without a lot of very hard work. Born with cerebral palsy, the young man gets around in an electric wheelchair.

He was the guest speaker at Independent Living Sudbury-Manitoulin's seventh annual International Day of Persons with Disabilities Breakfast, held Dec. 1 at the Caruso Club.

Benoit spoke about his struggles during his time at Laurentian, when he often sacrificed sleep to keep up with his homework. He refused to reduce his course load, an accommodation often made for disabled students.

Even when he failed midterms, Benoit wasn't discouraged. A huge sports fan, he used a sports reference to explain his philosophy of success.

“Whenever I was down, I always kind of thought of in the NHL, how they have the best of seven series,” he said. “If you're down two or three games, you have the chance to come back and win ... You have to go for what you want in life.”

When Benoit was still at Laurentian, he launched his own business — a retailer called The Positive Inception selling clothing with inspirational slogans.

“It's all about being more positive and trying to make the world a better place,” he said.

Benoit said he was honoured to be chosen as the guest speaker at the International Day of Persons with Disabilities Breakfast. He shared some of his thoughts on what it means to be a person with a disability.

“I think God kind of chooses the people who he thinks can handle having a disability, because it's not easy,” he said.

“For me it takes a lot longer to do things. I have to be more efficient and have better time management ... I think having a disability, it made me who I am today. It gave me the opportunities to be who I am and do what I do right now.”

The breakfast is a fundraiser for Independent Living Sudbury Manitoulin, a Durham Street-based centre geared to providing those with all kinds of disabilities the tools to succeed and achieve independence in their lives.

Besides Benoit's speech, the breakfast also featured the presentations of lifetime memberships to several people for their contributions.

Independent Living Sudbury Manitoulin board chair president Lance Cryderman said the theme of this year's International Day of Persons with Disabilities — officially marked Dec. 3 — is inclusion, something he thinks is key.

“My life and what I do on a day to day basis is not that extraordinary,” said Cryderman, a disability adviser in Laurentian's accessibility services office who gets around with an electric wheelchair.

“People talk to me all the time and ask 'How do you work full time? How do you have kids? How do you do all these things if you have a disability?'

“It's as if the disability is supposed to be the only thing in my life, but it is only one component. For me, the day is about recognizing disability as a part of society, but not necessarily something that defines our existence as people.”