I was not able to walk. Fortunately, my electric wheelchair gave me lots of ____1____. However, as I became older, I realized I couldn’t be too dependent on my electric wheelchair.
My high school graduation was only one month away, and I was ____2____ to roll across the graduation stage in my manual(手动的) wheelchair ____3____ the electric one. In order to practice, I began using my manual wheelchair daily at school. During the first several days, everyone ____4____ to give me a push from class to class, but after a few times of my ____5____, everyone got the hint(暗示) and let me ____6____ myself around the school. I had always received great ____7____ from using my manual wheelchair, but when I began to push myself around the school, the ____8____ rewards were far greater than I ever ____9____. I not only saw myself ____10____, but my classmates, too, seemed to view me on a different level. To me, it was a symbolic ____11____ in my life to graduate from high school in my manual wheelchair. I didn’t ____12____ if it took me 20 minutes to push across the stage. I wanted to enter my future as a(n) ____13____ young man.
That day, when the announcer called my name, I ____14____ that everything I had ____15____ for as a child was now a reality. The independent life that I had worked so hard for was now within my ____16____. I pushed my self ever so ____17____ toward the front of the stage. I ____18____ from my concentration on pushing my wheelchair and realized that everyone on the ____19____ was standing to clap. I ____20____ accepted my diploma, and cried as loud as I could. “I did it!”