While I sat in the Righetti's nicely furnished home, I watched Natalee ...

While I sat in the Righetti’s
nicely furnished home, I watched
Natalee giggle and stand up to
allow her mom to sit. The resemblance
was uncanny. I had just spoken
with Natalee and was excited
to hear about her from her mom’s
perspective. I asked her to tell me
a story about Natalee. She had the
same look that Natalee had when
she was thinking. They looked to
an upper corner, smiled and exclaimed,
“UUUUMMMmmmm...”.
She later said, “I can’t think of these
on the spot! I’m sure you could get
tons from her siblings, Wesley or
Nicolette.” After some more thinking
she finally said, “Well, okay,
one thing I will never forget about
Natalee as a kid was her desire to
be like her brother”. She explained
to me that whenever Wesley was
playing a sport, Natalee was insistent
on playing with him. However,
due to her condition, her parents
had to tell her no. Kandice
distinctly remembered Natalee’s
“adorable” expression when this
familiar event occurred. She’d cross
her arms and have an exaggerated
pouty face. Who could blame her?
I loved hearing Kandice’s, Natalee’s
mother’s, story about her desire to
fit in with her brother. I learned
that from a young age Natalee never
wanted to alienate herself. She
saw no reason to be treated differently.
Natalee later addressed this
story from her mom by laughing
and imitating the face she’d make.
She explained how upset she was
because she so badly wanted to fit
in and be able to participate in her
brother’s activities. Even though
she was describing a time that really
frustrated her, she described it
with a smile. In fact, she was always
smiling. It wasn’t just any grin, it
was infectious. The energy in the
Righetti household was an optimistic
vibe with a lot of affection and
gratitude in the air. When I entered
their house to begin my interviews,
their whole family came down to
greet me. They asked me about
my family, school and the project.
While I know they had busy lives,
they had no problem with going
out of their way to make me feel
welcome.
Natalee Righetti, one
member of the Righetti triplets,
was born with a condition, cerebral
palsy. Cerebral palsy is a disorder
that affects muscle tone, movement
and motor skills. Natalee was born
with slight paralysis on the left side
of her body. This means it’s difficult
for her to use the left side of
her body, limiting her from certain
activities. Natalee says she has the
assistance of her mom and sister
to do daily activities such as cutting
food with a knife, doing her
hair, and so forth. However, from
years of practice she has learned to
do many things on her own. One
limitation that especially upsets her
is her inability to partake vigorously
in some sports. This has been
“I kind of pushed through and forced
myself to be positive because you
have to when you have a challenge.
People want to make you feel less
human at times”
emotionally difficult for her seeing
as her father, Dave Righetti, has
spent all of his life working on his
athletic career. While it has been an
emotional struggle, Natalee has taken
away a lot from her experience.
She is now an extremely optimistic,
grateful person who believes she
can overcome any challenge. She
believes that since she’s able to use
her right side easily, she’s blessed.
She takes advantage of her capabilities
to inspire others to have the
same outlook on life that she has.
Natalee now does motivational
speaking, helps with community
service, and most importantly, has
written a book. She feels it’s her
responsibility to help out, since she
has had such a wonderful outcome
thanks to her positivity.

The day the triplets were
born, the Righetti family had
obstacles to face. When they were
born, Dave and Kandice were told
that their youngest, Natalee, had
cerebral palsy. Statistics have shown
that it’s not uncommon for triplets
to come with birth defects. Kandice
tells me now that having kids with
special needs is a whole other realm
of parenting. Her experience as a
mother was completely different
from most mothers. She had the
responsibility of loading the kids in
the car, taking them to the doctors
or physicians, taking them home,
unloading them. This was a constant
routine that she says was entirely
worth it. Even though it was a
different style of parenting, Kandice
says it’s much more rewarding. The
little accomplishments seem so
much more monumental. Natalee
had to visit physical therapists for
her condition. When I asked her
how she felt about it, she responded,
“ I never really liked it. It was
fun when I was younger but still
hard and scary”. She explained that
as a child, she had to climb a ladder;
but, as she grew up, the activities
became more challenging and
less “fun”. All her life, though,
Natalee had a passion for sports.
She believes this was mostly due
to her father’s career. When I
asked how her father had influenced
her opinion on sports, she
said to me, “Him being in baseball
made me love it so much.
I see his passion in the game
and how much he works and it
inspires me.” While she was able
to teach herself a lot of tricks in
sports, she still faced challenges.
When she was in her softball
phase, she had to learn how to
catch and throw with the same
hand. She ended up acquiring
this skill, but that doesn’t mean
it was easy. In high school, she
became interested in volleyball.
At one point, however, it became
too difficult and decided to quit.
This was one of the most disappointing
times in her life. She
never gave up on anything, but
she had a weak moment and let
go of a challenge. According to
Psychology Today, the element
of initiative is usually
acquired during the adolescence
period. Based on their
environment, the child will
obtain lots of motivation to
keep trying hard. Fortunately,
Natalee was raised in these
conditions. “I’ve always been
pretty positive. I was less
positive with my challenge
with volleyball. That was
my lowest point. But then, I
read this book called Purpose
Driven Life. It really opened
my understanding of my disability
and purpose. I came
to accept everything that
happened. There’s more
that I could be good at. Sophomore
year was hardest because of not
playing volleyball.” She decided
to re-join the athletic field, and
since then has worked very hard to
remain optimistic and contribute to
the disabilities community.
I had the privilege of joining
Natalee at a National Charity
League event. They asked Natalee
to give a speech on her book. I
met up with her in Woodside and
we walked into this beautiful old
home. She was in there, nervous.
She, her sister, Nicolette, and her
mother were dressed up in lovely
sun-dresses. I knew Natalee cherished
their presence during her
time of her nervousness because
of how she described their relationship
earlier. She had explained
to me before that Nicolette and
she were huge parts of each other’s
lives. Nicolette being hearing
impaired has faced obstacles just
like Natalee. She told me, “Having
disabilities has really connected us.

It has helped us cope
with it. We say our disabilities
are our strengths”. Nicolette
has played a huge role in
Natalee’s current character.
Nicolette and Kandice both
kept saying supportive things
to Natalee to calm her nerves.
I later left to set up my camera
and minutes later saw Natalee
approach the podium. As
always, she had that infectious
grin on her face. She began
speaking about why she had
written her book. There were
at least 200 interested faces
staring at the inspirational
21-year-old. Natalee explained
her experience growing up
with cerebral palsy and how
the littlest bit of confidence
and positivity took her a long
way. The title of her book,
“Beautifully Different”, addressed
her belief that you can
look at issues in several
different ways. However, in
Natalee’s case, looking at “disability”
in a positive manner
can turn it into an “ability”.
When she was done speaking,
there was a roar of an
applause. She began to accept
questions. Several mothers
wanted more information
on her experience and her
plans for the future. When she
was finished, she handed out
copied of her book to eager,
inspired listeners.
In high school, Natalee
was given the opportunity to
attend Camp Everytown. This
program is directed towards
difference in society. It teaches
students about accepting all
kinds of people. To be able to
participate, you must be nominated
and then go through
the interview process. Seeing
as it’s selective, not everyone
gets to have the same experience
that Natalee had. Natalee
wanted others to understand
and be knowledgeable of what
she and others go through on
a daily basis. She didn’t believe
that people were discriminatory,
but just uneducated
on what it was like to have
a disability. This was when
she came up with her idea of
Disability Awareness Day. This
was focused less on the “disability”
itself, but the concept
of being different in general.
She asked her principal, Keith
Moody, and he approved her
request. She wanted to give
an “opportunity to open up to
one another”. Natalee doesn’t
want disabilities to be an elephant
in the room. She told
me an interview she wants
people to be comfortable with
others being different. There’s
a lot of controversy on what

the etiquette is when discussing disabilities. There are still barriers between people
with disabilities and people without disabilities. These are usually due to over-concern
for being politically correct, failure to recognize their rights, negative attitudes,
lack of awareness, and misconceptions. These reasons for the barrier are what stimulated
the concept of disability awareness, in general. Natalee has now gotten involved
in this movement and has now made her contribution to Mountain View High
School. She’s proud to have left something behind.
Natalee has high hopes for her future. She plans on continuing to volunteer at
the Bay Area Women’s Sports Initiative, an organization that facilitates athletics for
people with special needs. She feels it’s important that others have a fortunate experience,
just like she did. She also recently was hired by Via Services. This is a non-profit
organization that helps people with special needs live fulfilling lives and achieve
greater self-sufficiency. She also will continue publicizing her book and spreading
the word so more people will hear her message. When she spoke at the NCL event,
she said that she may write another book; what it will be about exactly, she isn’t sure.
Natalee is certainly going to keep on contributing to the community and spread her
message.
While her experience certainly hasn’t been a breeze, Natalee has made it a necessity
to constantly think positively. Thanks to her high spirits, she has been able to
accomplish what she never thought was possible. She now doesn’t view her disability
as handicapping. Now that she is satisfied with her work and her future, she wants to
help others feel the same way. She wants to preach what she’s
learned so others can benefit as well. In the words of Natalee
herself: “There’s a lot of judgment. I feel helping others understanding
people with disabilities is my way of contributing
to society. I feel I can help anybody see that it’s okay to
be different. The truth is everyone’s different. I feel I could
help others accept the world and that everyone’s different
because I think thats a good thing!”