Attending eBay Live!: One Seller's Personal Challenge
by abovethemall
eBay Member

eBay Live! 2003 is less than a month away, and I've never been more ready to do something than I am to make this trip. I've booked my room, gassed up my van, and all but have my bags packed. I'm ready to go!!!

This trip will be significant for me in several ways: It'll be the first trip I've taken, without a family member, since my wheelchair and I became partners. It'll be a trip where I get to meet the folks that are so vital to my business success: other sellers, buyers, eBay folks, PayPal folks, Endicia folks, U-Pic folks.... my online friends and "family".

To say that I'm excited would be an understatement, but I'm also a little bit nervous. In the day-to-day business of writing auctions, taking pictures, answering customers' questions, and packing and shipping, no one knows that I'm differently abled. And no one cares. I'm just a seller like any other seller: I do my job, and I try to do it well.

I didn't have a choice in whether to be disabled or not, but I had a choice in how I would make a living afterwards. My choice was to "do eBay," and I've not regretted one moment of it. What will happen when I get to eBay Live? Will there be others "like me"? Will people look at me funny? Will I be able to get around okay? Will the bathrooms be wheelchair accessible? Will I be able to get from my hotel to the convention center? Although these questions might be mundane to the average person, they're critically important to the wheelchair traveler.

With some help from the eBay Community and the Internet, I've learned the answers to all my questions, and more:

• I've learned that even if there are a few hurdles in my way, my fellow eBay members will be there to lend a helping hand along the way.
• I've learned that I have nothing to fear from this trip, because we're all "different" in our own ways.
• I've learned that Orlando is a very wheelchair-friendly city and that the convention center is a "wheeler's" paradise.

eBay - I thank you for affording me this opportunity to spread my wings a bit more, and I look forward to meeting all the rest of you that are " a little bit different" - just like me.