I just love going to give presentations on blindness and last night wasn't any different. I had a really great time talking to a group of college students and found myself laughing quite a bit.
A low-light was when I started joking that my travel instructor was a sighted guy and that at first I was disappointed because I wanted at blind guy and this guy says, 'Hey are you talking about Derick!?! I know he was your teacher!" Oh, crap! I forget everyone knows everyone in this town. All my love to Derick.
I always throw it out there that there are NO comments or questions that ruffle my feathers, I've heard it all. But yet, every time, without fail, I find myself scratching my head over a few questions/statements...(an no I don't have lice, gross!)
Last night I asked the group to tell me their name and one thing they knew, or had heard, about blind people. Such a fun question! This is what I got...(I hate typing quote marks so consider each statement below duelly quoted, thanks).
-I hear blind people have really, really good memories. I knew a blind guy once and he could remember everything, I mean everything!
-I have heard that blind people don't decorate their houses and have very few pieces of furniture.
-I know a lot of blind people and they use "weird things" to take notes in class.
Wouldn't you say I got some good stuff!?! I'm not making fun of these answers at all, although a couple make me snicker a bit, but what I loved was how open this group was with me and they weren't afraid to talk and ask questions.
I ran out of time last night to respond to all the above statements so I will attempt to do that briefly now.
But first, can I vent? GQ tells me I have the memory of an old woman, rude huh!?! I mean seriously just because the most common sentences in my vocabulary are, "Where the heck is my cell phone?" "How old am I again? Wait...one, two, three..." "I was supposed to be at that meeting TODAY???" "I forgot to pay my bill so I'm going to have to pay a late fee? Dang, again!?!" "Wait, what are we even talking about, I can't remember!" "What was the first thing on the menu again?" doesn't give him the right to say I have a bad memory! Sheeesh!
Oh and another thing I wanted to run past you guys, do you think there's something mentally malfunctional with my head if I go through my house and check to make sure the pictures on my walls are straight at least twice a week, re-arrange my living room when I'm bored and repaint the same frame 80 times because I keep changing my mind on the best accent color for my living room? I am really hoping that's all normal, come on guys tell me the truth!?!
Oh yeah and what's weird about using a metal plate and a sharp pointy metal poker thingy to write notes? As if pencils aren't weird!?! Seriously.
Wait...what was I supposed to be writing in this post? Craaap, I don't remember!
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