Meet Joyee

Flying into the Grand Canyon by helicopter was by far the most exciting thing I’ve ever done. It’s kind of weird. When you’re up the air, it feels like you’re not moving. It was amazing, like nothing I’ve ever experienced before. The pictures do not do it justice.

My mom plans all these crazy adventures. Because of me, she’s done things she’s never done before. Before I came along, she’d never been snow mobiling, dog sledding or in a hot air balloon. 

For the dog sledding, they had me wrapped up in a sleeping bag with blankets. The dogs were very excited. We went around a field. It was snowing. It was cool. It was at night. My mom talked to the guys before and asked them a million questions to make sure it would be safe, like could I go over bumps and stuff. It wasn’t an adaptive experience. We made it adaptive.

Traveling is a whole production. We need to use two taxis, one for my hoyer lift and one for my wheelchair. And finding the right hotel is hard. We need space under the bed to fit the hoyer lift. We have to call in advance and ask them to take pictures of the room, and It’s kind of a big ordeal.

Our Myrtle Beach trip was definitely hectic. We drove 18 hours taking two separate vehicles. Every night when it was time for me to go to bed we had to rearrange all the furniture or move it outside so I had room to use the bathroom and get into bed with the hoyer lift. Waking up, we would have to do the whole process all over again. We ended up losing our credit card and the keys to the van during that trip.

We like to go for drives. Drives to nowhere. I either get a drink from Starbucks or Dunkin Donuts. Depends on my mood. I like the Pink Drink from Starbucks. It’s strawberry flavored tea mixed with coconut milk. From Dunkin, I like their Refreshers. The strawberry dragon fruit one is good. You can get it with lemonade, green tea or sparkling water, which is what I do.

I have my obstacles, by I try not to let that stop me. Even being in a chair, I try to do things that everyone else could do. I have a standing chair, but I don’t like the attention that it brings. I’ve been volunteering at the animal shelter for about two years. I go Saturday and Sunday. I do social media posts, advertise the animals that are going to be adopted, describe the dogs’ personalities.

I’ve modeled in New York, Las Vegas and New Jersey through an organization called Runway of Dreams. It was just so cool to be able to wear the clothes, go on the runway, and have people cheering for you. I met a lot of people with different abilities, and the people that worked there were really nice. 

I’ve met a lot of celebrities. I’m kind of a celebrity magnet. Sammy Hagar came up to me at a mall and shook my hand. I think it’s cool when people come up to me. At a Taylor Swift concert Taylor’s mom came over to me to say hi. I’ve also met JJ Abrams and Shakira. I don’t know, people just like to say hi to me. We went to the Bruins game this weekend and I was on the Jumbotron.