Category: Let's talk
Hey I was just wondering how long everyone has been blind. I was asked an interesting question, would I rather go blind later in life, or would i have rather it happened when i was younger? Hmmm, well really rather not at all! lol! no, really I think I would rather do it the way it happened to me. I went blind four years ago when i was twenty three. I had been able to do a lot of things like drive, something i would have missed out on if i had been blind earlier. I mean something I could live without having done, but it was fun while it lasted. I also know what my family, friends and hmm, just my whole hometown looks like! I mean yeah, lots of changes, but i still have a good picture of it. I mean I have also seen the grass, sky, water, and know what it is all about. I guess at the same time if having done it at a younger age, I wouldn't know what any of this was like so I wouldn't be missing it as much! I did have a lot to learn in a little bit of time though. Things like learning to cook and not catch the place on fire! lol! learning to use my cain, and braille. I hear these things are much easier to learn at a younger age. But I think I have adapted great. Well as great as I can! lol! I did have perfect site up to the week before I went blind. I am interested to see what everyone else thinks about this issue? smile angel-
Angel, I find your optommism truely inspirational. As for me, I lost my site when I was 2 and a half, so although I didn't have my site for a very long time at all, and practicly lived my entire life as a blind person, I do feel that having had that site for a little while was deffinently a good thing. Like you I would probably have prefered not to lose it at all, but given the cercomstances, I'm happy with how it's all turned out. I would have to say I wouldn't change it. Maybe just an extra few months so that I could have maybe one or 2 memories of seeing. As it is, I have no concious memories, but like I said I feel that thoughs early sited days, have contributed to my ability to adapt to and learn new surroundings etc. Keep smiling chicka.
hey angel. i have vision problems since i was young. hmm can't really remember what age though. i don't know the feeling about using the braille. but as long as you have the heart to learn, you will make it to the end. smiles: jermaine
i lost my sight when I was eleven years old. had partial sight until then.
Thanks guys. And puggles you are such an inspiration to me, you are so awesome and will go so far! your big move and all that, I would be so scared. I mean I would do it, but you handle it so well! I wish you the best of luck although you don't need it! you are the real inspiration! Hugs! and snowflake, yeah, I am now finished with braille. it wasn't as hard as I thaught it would be. But, I still have a hard time remembering grade two contractions. I will get them down sooner or later. Did anyone else have to get certified in it? When I was finished with the class through doors they had us take a big test and got some sort of certification. Smile-angel
I've lost my sight at birth due to a rare eye disorder.
Hey Angel. Before reading your post, my immediate conclusion would be that I'd prefer what happened to me, being born blind. You thus avoid the huge learning curve you would have gone through, and I do admire you for it all. But then when you talked about at least having seen nature, your home town, hell even TV, I wish I had had the chance to see everything in order to understand the way sighted people perceive the world.
Angel, i was blind from birth due to my mum having a virus when she was carrying me. i can see light, but that's about it, i used to have colour vision until i was about 1 and a half, but other than that, nothing. As leefan was saying, i'd have liked to have seen my family, tv and i'd have loved to have driven down a road, but you are definitely an inspiration, as you carried on and you didn't let losing your sight get you down too much. I have been using braille since the age of four, and i did have a small test to check whether i'd learnt everything. keep going sweetie, like i will. Kay xxxxxxxxx
hi angel. i have eyes problems since i was born. but i'm lucky enough at least i still have a little sight. i know what you feel when from what you can see to you can't see lol. if me.... i've imagine it before but just that i can't imagine it again. smiles. but you are good enough that at least you have drive before. this will just be a sweet sweet dream for me. a never come true dream. yes, learning braille is quiet hard in to memerice all the grade 2 notation. but you guys are the lucky one. i need to learn another language in braille as well. which malaysian lol. i'm planing to learn chinese braille in the future. hmm is another challange for me. have a good one. cheers: season
Hmm, I've been blind since I was 5 (the darn R.B. stuff, Puggle should know, it's a pain in the .. well in the eys actually).
It's a tough choice but I think seeing for a little bit actually helps you understand a lot of little things, like colors, how colors match etc. I used to remember colors and imges vividly but it's been fading slowly ever since I was 5 and is almost gone, but still I have a lot of concepts that I understand and I think (possibly but I have no proof of course) I may have an easier time understanding diagrams and visual representations of things than someone who has been blind his/her entire life. I can often visualize a picture in my head somehow and I don't know if it's because I used to see or just training. :)
Cheers
-B
since the 25th of November 1970 my birthday.
I've been blind since birth. No one actually knows why - they were never able to establish what caused my blindness. Sometimes I think that I'd like to be able to see, drive a car, go wherever I wanted when I wanted and not necessarily have to rely on people for help for example in situations where I am in an unknown place. to be able to see my son, and to have been able to see him smile at me for the first time. but it's not something I've ever had issue with really, it's more a case of wondering what it would be like. hehehe and then I wonder what it'd be like to suddenly be able to see having never seen before. pretty scary I think, imagine looking at trees, buildings, people who you've never seen before, and having no concept really of what is pretty and what isn't ... etc.
As a child I was miserable desperate to see and became convinced that the miracle would happen before my 6th birthday, however as a teenager I realised that this was something to learn from and I began to explore my limitations through climbing and music ....BUT I emotionally ache when I know I'll never see Alasdair and/or Louis still it doesn't dominate...
hey all, thanks for your stories. your all so great. As I siad I went blind four years ago on my twenty third birthday due to a blood clot on my brain that the wonderful dr.'s we trust couldn't catch until it was to late. Do i regret it? Yeah, at times I mean i would love to see my fiancee, nieces and family. I don't sit and mope about it though. i have learned life goes on. Yeah, like you gobblin, The first year I held on the hope the dr.'s gave me that there was a chance my site would pop back. I learned to get over it and gdt on with life. I always said when i got my site the first thing I was going to do was get my mom's car out of the garage and drive by her and just wave. Lol! you have to know my mom and her car. It is a camaro the twenty fifth anniversary car. the last make of that model of camero. My mom's baby she is so prissy with this thing. lol! So I think she would freak! lol! It kind of drives me nuts everyone meaning my family and friends were always saying they don't know how I have kept such a good attitude about the whole thing. My reply is you would do it to if you had to. I'm not that brave, just not a whiney mope that sits around feeling sorry for myself! lol! Thanks again for all your posts. Hugs to all! smile-angel
I've been blind since birth due to detached retinas. For the most part I've accepted my blindness since I've never been any other way and not being able to see doesn't make me that much different from my peers, except that I read Braille and use a cane or guide dog. There are times though when I wonder what it'd be like to see, especially now when all of my friends are getting their drivers' licenses. I'll never be able to just walk out to my driveway, hop in a car, and drive anywhere I want dependent only on me. But most of the time I don't mind being blind, except when people ask me stupid questions lol.
Angel ...to contradict what I said ...I have been thinking about it more, especially, now with the incredible medical advances..but what would we do with something so alien and think of the hassle of learning to see...no thanks...the horror of seeing my brother hungover 1st thing in the morning makes me reconsider..grin.
Angel dont ever give up on the Camaro find someone who will help you to achieve this dream, its not impossible, just difficult......
yeah,goblin, I think it would be so funny! I would love to jus see my mom's face when I'm driving by and waving! lol! smile-angel
yeah,goblin, I think it would be so funny! I would love to jus see my mom's face when I'm driving by and waving! lol! smile-angel
dang, sorry guys I don't know why it keeps double posting. smile angel
angel does the happy dance. i finaly got my certification in braille today. it's about dang time! lol! Now just if i can remember it all! lol smile-angel
Hi angel, it does that with my posts sometimes, not always, but with some posts it does. Anyway, I was born blind because of optic nerve damage. Basically, we have these little jellies in the eyes that are suppose to harden after a couple of weeks, so the baby can see, but mine didn't. I would rather have been born blind, just as I was, because I came in to the world adjusted to it. When you're born blind, you don't have sight, then suddenly have it taken away from you. As I see it, you can't lose or miss something you never had.
wonderwoman
nope sorry for what?
um what the heck that was not supposed to happen. sorry i didn't mean to post that! lol
I've been blind all my life due to ROP, although I have light perception. I can't really say that I've done a lot of wishing that I could see. I know other people have wished it, but they're usually well-intentioned strangers who haven't thought the consequences through. I would wonder, for example, if I were able to see through a miracle operation, if my brain would automatically just start registering everything. I think not. Also, it would really be like being a baby again and I'd have to first learn to recognize everything visually, then learn how to orient myself visually, then learn how to read and write and drive. Then there are the philosophical questions. OK, so i'd be what a lot of people would consider normal. Would I be happier? Would I be able to do things as naturally as a person sighted from birth? What about body language and facial expressions and all that. I think I'd rather just stay blind. Besides, in my own way of thinking, people need the blind and disabled so they can learn how to better deal with differences between people. It's about time we start getting rid of our fear of anyone not the norm before we blow each other up.
Hello Angel,
Well I have been blind since 21, about 5½ years ago. I think losing my sight later in life helped me in some ways. I know how certain things look. I know about traffic patterns at crossings. I don't believe that I had a learn curve. Some thing I took to like a duck to water. Did take a little to adjust to but got over it. At least I had the time that I did to do things. Well if you have any questions anyone just ask.
BB
Hi Angel77 and All! Well I've been blind since birth. To me, I'm glad. I mean, I think if I could have seen, and then lost my sight, I would have had trouble adjusting. I mean maybe not, but that's how I see it. But on the other hand, I can see how when you've been sighted and then you go blind, you still have memories of what thigns look liek and that might be really nice to have. But I don't know. From my perspective, I'm glad things worked out for me the way they did. But maybe If i'd been sighted and then lost my sight I'd think differently. Lol! I dunno! But this certainly is an interesting discussion.
Well, I suppose like a lot of things, each situation has its good and bad points, eh?
Whenever I am asked 'Have you been blind all your life?' I always answer, 'Not yet'.
Sorry K I know this is a serious discussion but coculdn't resist sharing that one with you!
I ahve been blind for um, I can't remember if it's been six or seven yers now. The long and short of it is that I went blind due to a doctor's messup. I remember the days just before I had the surgery everything was cloudy and colors began blending. I knew I was going to be blind so I decided while I still could see that I wouldn't let it stop me. When I found out I was going to never see again, I was more happy to be aboue to move around and be back to normal. you have to understand for me, I had to keep my head down for six months, and I was not allowd to go anywhere. I was a senior in high school and I just wanted to get to martial arts. Well that's it in a nutshell. Catch yawl laters.
D-
yeah, ww, mine is my optic nerve. The blood clot i had cut off the oxygen to my optic nerve killing it. Smile- angel
lol ll, briliant as always. I'll remember that one and borrow it if I may hehe.
I don't get your joke LL. COuld you liek explain it? Lol sorry ...
But yeah ... I agree with you guys that the opinion varies from person to person ... whether you wish you had seen before yo uwent blind, or if you wish youd' been born blind, etc. But I've met kids who'vel ost their sight and they seem so unhappy and clingy all the time. ... It just made me think.
yeah, ll that was a good one! i will have to remember it! lol! smile- angel
Hi Caitlin, I think he meant he hasn't been blind all his life because he hasn't lived all his life yet. Well, I just tell them yes, since I don't think they're being stupid or sarcastic forasking that. They're just trying to make conversation and are curious.
wonderwoman
Oh thanks WW for clearing that up I get it now I think ahahah.
oh i got that one. good one ll. Well, i think everyone has their down days, blind or sighted so i try not to get down too often. On sunday, i felt very down about my sight and told mum i wish i could have driven, just once, or seen. she took my hand and put it on the geer stick of her car, when she was driving with her hand over the top of mine and we guided the car down the road to my nan's. Her doing something like that made me happy, as i'd held a geer stick. sorry, i just had to say that and angel, if you ever need help with braille, i'm always around. kay xxxxxxx
Angel if you ever get the chance take it and enjoy!..