Page 23 - ABILITY Magazine - Avril Lavigne Issue

myself and going my own way early on.
At first I thought, Well, this is interesting. Maybe it’s a positive thing. Maybe I’m memorable; out of the box. Even though I didn’t really know what that meant. Actually, I didn’t feel bad about being different until middle school and high school.
Zimmerman: You once mentioned at the Performing Arts Studio West that one of your favorite singers is Stevie Wonder.
Zimmerman: Did you ever feel bad about it, Geri? Jewell: Not until high school.
Hendricks: So you survived middle school?
Hendricks: He’s a huge influence. I first came across him around the same time that I came across Michael Jackson; they were both signed to Berry Gordy at Motown for a time. I saw Stevie Wonder as this amaz- ing man who was blind, but in a matter of moments after he started to perform, his condition would vanish. It was almost as if it complemented his talent. It was the most beautiful thing to me.
Jewell: Well, don’t forget, I had a different experience. I was in special ed until high school; I wasn’t mainstreamed like you were.
Plus, I constantly move my head around, so looking at Stevie, and seeing him do the same thing, I felt like we had that in common. And obviously, I actually learned recently from you, Geri, that I move my head around so much due to cerebral palsy. But I used to tell people that it was just music in my head causing me to dance all the time. Which is absolutely true. I constantly have—
Hendricks: And that’s an interesting point, because when I was in elementary school, I wasn’t in special ed, but I did ride the special ed bus for a period. So I spent time with kids who had both physical and mental conditions. And I would see how some of the adults would treat some of the kids with mental conditions, and it was appalling.
Jewell: —creative compensation.
I remember one of the bus drivers had this dust rag that she would carry around, and there was a kid I used to always sit next to on the bus. His name was Scotty. I could tell he was desperately trying to express himself; he was a lovable character who knew the people around him didn’t get what he was trying to say. But as he got more and more frustrated, the bus driver or assistant bus driver would take that dust cloth and snap him in the face with it. I’d be thinking: What the hell is wrong with them? I remember going home to my parents and saying, “These people are idiots. Can we fix this?”
Hendricks: Yeah, creative compensation. But again, I saw it as this sort of an abnormality.
Zimmerman: When did you realize that you had CP?
Hendricks: I was diagnosed when I was 4 years old. I had a lot of little operations when I was young, but I don’t think I realized that I had a condition that early.
Zimmerman: I remembered riding the bus and being picked on myself. I had a nice upbringing. But I got picked on, too, for some reason. I don’t know what it was. But hearing you say that brought up a wave of emotion.
Jewell: So it was never talked about?
Hendricks: In middle school and high school, I saw CP
Hendricks: My parents would talk about it and try and
get me to understand, but I don’t even think my mom knew how to explain what I had. She did the best that she could, and she was really motivating. She would say, “You can do whatever you want, but you have this thing.” I didn’t really understand until somebody in my own age group pointed out that I was different.
Zimmerman: Did you feel different?
Hendricks: Not until somebody said something about it. That was the first time I felt bad about being different.
Jewell: How old were you at that point?
Hendricks: Kindergarten or first grade; I sort of hob- bled in there with my walker, and somebody looked at me and pointed. And I felt this shift—eyes leaving whatever they were doing and falling onto me.
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