In honor of blindness awareness month this October, I decided to finish this post! I drafted it this summer and then abandoned it because I found it difficult to write. For me, it’s like trying to describe my favorite type of movie– I can’t put the exact description into words but I know it when I see it. And if I think about it enough, I can find words, but it does take some thought. I don’t like to be cynical, but it would have been easier to come up with a list of 15 ways NOT to help people with RP! I decided to take the more positive approach, although I couldn’t resist throwing in some of my personal pet peeves. Continue reading “15 Tips for Assisting People With Low Vision”
Tag: living with RP
What Newborns, Airports and Eye Contact All Have In Common
So the doublevision family has grown, as Jenelle welcomed Baby Ben into the family on Easter Day!
I just had the privilege of heading out to the northwest to spend a week with my favorite twin and her new, little (well big– now almost 10 lbs!) bundle, along with her adorable, active preschooler and amazing husband.
Obviously, traveling from the Midwest up to the Cascade mountains took some traveling. And if there’s anything that stresses me out about traveling, it’s airports. While I’m still stubborn about not using my cane, airports are one place that I really won’t enter without my trusty colored stick. Continue reading “What Newborns, Airports and Eye Contact All Have In Common”
“Normal”
Ever since I can remember, I’ve wanted to be “normal”. I’ve wanted to just blend in and not make a spectacle of myself (which is pretty hard to do when you’re running into poles and such.) I’ve literally pictured what my life would look like if I was “normal”, and by normal, I of course mean perfectly-sighted. I would live out in the country– or maybe I wouldn’t– but I’d at least have the choice to live in the boonies because the “normal me” could drive. I’d have some job that required a lot of driving– like a pharmaceutical rep– or maybe I wouldn’t– but at least I’d be able to choose a career that involves driving. I’d play beach volleyball– or maybe I wouldn’t– but at least it’d be an option on a hot, summer day. You catch my drift; “normal me” has a lot of options.The funny thing is that most of my “normal me” fantasies don’t envision my life all that different from what it is now– I’d still be married to the same amazing man, have the same sweet children, the same supportive friends, live in a similar house with a similar career path, but I’d be a much “better me”. I’d look better (because I’d be able to do my makeup better if i could see it more clearly, of course!), act funnier and wittie (because I’d see funny things all around me), be a more-together and fun mom (wouldn’t lose a thing if I could see!), be more outgoing, athletic, involved…… I’d just be me with a little boost.Okay, so “normal me” is beginning to just sound like “perfect me”. Definitely not saying I would be perfect, but I really can’t help but think I’d be BETTER. I know that most people have their “thing” that makes them feel abnormal– the family they grew up in (probably half of America for that one), some physical trait that they don’t like about their face or body, some secret about their past, some act that they wish they hadn’t done or hadn’t been done to them…… there are probably very few people who would say they feel “normal”, whatever that word really even means.
But if so many people don’t fit into being “normal”, why do I sometimes feel like I am the only one who sticks out as “not normal”? And if I really do enjoy most aspects of my life, why do I daydream about changing it? Let me re-phrase that: why do WE daydream about changing it? Based on many of the RP chatrooms I’ve visited, I know that this is something we all struggle with, and I don’t think daydreaming about being perfectly sighted is necessarily unhealthy. But I do think that we should pay attention to how we view ourselves and the vocabulary that goes along with those views, especially the “n” word.