Amber Ayala: One Journey Ends And Another Begins
Following on from when we first met Amber at the start of her COVVI Hand journey, she’s had time to reflect on where it all started as a young congenital amputee facing the daunting stare from society.
Societal pressure is something we all have to face at some point but as someone with a limb difference, it seems to be a never-ending narrative in their lives. Amber looks back to the transition from high school to college and admits it was difficult, “as a teenager growing into adulthood, one of the biggest challenges I had to overcome was being stared at.” Not knowing what people were really thinking caused her to overthink and feel pitied; something she never wanted to experience. “I didn’t like knowing that some people felt bad for me because they saw me as someone who wasn’t capable of most things; when in fact I was actually very capable as I just figured out a different way to achieve whatever I wanted to do.”
Amber considers herself to be a unique person due to her upbringing with her grandparents. When meeting people for the first time she feels like she always had to overexplain herself in order to be understood. Because of this, she found that “it made me down to earth and encouraged me to care wildly for others so they didn’t have to feel any of the discomforts that I have in the past.”
She’s carried this positive outlook throughout her life and has made sure to surround herself with highly motivated and intelligent friends whilst pursuing a successful career in accounting for the last 7 years. Amber makes sure to stay active even in her downtime and likes to challenge herself in the gym. The addition of her COVVI Hand within her routine, she attests has allowed her to see the bigger picture she never knew existed. “Overall I can now view myself more as a whole instead of fragmented.”
Throughout her journey, despite keeping her spirits high, she always knew that getting a prosthetic was a necessary step she had to do for herself. “I realized there was much more I could do with a prosthetic…After getting the COVVI Hand, I have grown so much more into a person I wanted to be.”
Amber continues to enjoy all her new hand has to offer her and for us here at COVVI, it brings us so much pride and happiness to see another life changed for the better, forever.