The waiter just flashed me something that said, "Chew bubblegum." Every morning, when I was about to go to the Oprah competition, my friend used to say this line in a video game to me: "It's time to kick ass and chew bubble gum." There's a strict policy that you can't encourage anyone on a reality show, that would give them an edge.

There's always going to be some hate on the Internet.

I haven't spoken to Oprah herself. She had so much going on, since her network show was wrapping up at the time we were shooting. I can't fault her for that.

The most important thing is to have the conversation, and let people who do make mistakes feel comfortable enough to continue the conversation.

CP is a struggle, but it's also been quite the tool for me to find success and deliver a message. It's something about me that's unique, so it'll open a few doors as well as keep a few closed. If you have the other tools that you develop as an individual, talents, things like that, you can harness this to do positive things in the world.

We'd done a couple of road trips with my big chair, and it was such a hassle if we didn't have the van with the foldout ramp. I figured: There's got to be some option that I can use on the go. Now I can go anywhere with my friends, which is a big, life-changing thing. I can sit on it for as long as I need to.

The thing to do is just make sure that as part of a disability community, we're not isolating ourselves by drawing differences for the sake of progress.