![\"Ramsey](\"https:\/\/gwu-today.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/IMG_5638.jpg\")
<\/a>Photo by: Tessa Walsh<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\u201cLiving the life I do, you learn to adapt and become a normal functioning person of society. Whether that be with step stools for getting to higher areas, extended petals in the car\u2026etc,\u201d said Ramsey. \u201cIf I go to a store and can\u2019t reach a certain product, my method is to take something and throw it at it until it falls, may not be the best method, but it works.\u201d<\/p>\n
Although Ramsey has learned to cope with challenges such as these, she hasn\u2019t always been as well adjusted. At times in her life, Ramsey would question why God created her as a little person. In high school, she fell into a depression where she didn\u2019t know what she was doing or why she was the way she was.<\/p>\n
\u201cI lived most of my life in a hospital, and people never treated me the same,\u201d said Ramsey.<\/p>\n
She felt she has always been treated as an \u201coddity\u201d like what the word \u201cmidget\u201d represents. \u201cThe word originated in the days of freak shows, to display people of short stature or oddities. Viewed as something negative, nothing positive,\u201d said Ramsey.<\/p>\n
Strangers have taken photos of her, asked intrusive questions and even laughed at her. \u201cWhenever I go out somewhere, there are still people who treat me as if I am a child, speaking to me in a different tone of voice, wanting to pick me up, treating me as a super fragile being,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Ramsey approaches some of these difficult situations with humor, saying she always has to be ready for a photo. \u201cYou can\u2019t get me at a bad angle or in an awkward facial expression, I have to be ready,\u201d she said. \u201cI finally learned that people are going to make fun of you regardless of what you do, regardless of who you are, regardless of anything.\u201d<\/p>\n As an American Sign Language major with hopes of interpreting for Disney World, Ramsey has found that through the hardships in life, God has been her strength and hope.<\/p>\n \u201cWithout a solid rock to stand on, you have nothing,\u201d said Ramsey. \u201cI learned that I was made for a purpose, a reason, and this was no accident, I am fearfully and wonderfully made, and I better start acting like it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By: Ellen Laws Spondyloepiphyseal dysplasia (SED) is a less common form of dwarfism and it affects Gardner-Webb senior\u00a0DeAnna Ramsey\u2019s life daily. \u201cLiving the life I do, you learn to adapt and become a normal functioning […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":2077,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[496,497,108,87,22,52,498,42,490],"class_list":{"0":"post-2070","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-feature","8":"tag-deanna-ramsey","9":"tag-dwarfism","10":"tag-ellen-laws","11":"tag-feature","12":"tag-gardner-webb-university","13":"tag-news","14":"tag-spondyloepiphyseal-dysplasia","15":"tag-student-life","16":"tag-tessa-walsh"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gwu-today.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2070","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gwu-today.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gwu-today.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gwu-today.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gwu-today.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2070"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gwu-today.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2070\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gwu-today.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2077"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gwu-today.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2070"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gwu-today.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2070"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gwu-today.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2070"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/a>
Photo by: Tessa Walsh<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n