More Updates And Pressing Onward

Shortly after I'd written my last blog entry yesterday I Googled "American Foundation for the Blind, contact us" because I wanted to ask someone from AFB a couple questions. First I wanted to ask someone from AFB why AFB's Career Connect app for iPhones wouldn't allow me to log into the iPhone app when I'm 100 percent certain that the login information I'd entered into the app was correct. The second thing I wanted to ask someone from AFB was why the message boards don't seem to be active within the last three years. I made a comment on AFB's contact form explaining that I'd posted something on the Career Connect technology message board this past Tuesday but that I was given a message that said that my post has still not actually been posted to AFB's Career Connect technology message board yet. After I'd filled out AFB's contact form with my two questions a friend of mine came back from running errands. He'd brought some DayQuil for me to take so that I'd hopefully be able to keep being active and get the things done that still need to be done. Shortly after I'd taken my first dose of DayQuil I tried to read some more of The Happiness Trap. Unfortunately though Bookshare's web reader wasn't cooperating for some reason. I played around with Bookshare's web reader for some time yesterday but I still could not figure out how to read the actual chapter that I was on. Because what was happening was that Bookshare's web reader would read everything but the chapter I actually wanted to read. It was so frustrating. Yet I didn't want to involve Bookshare because I'm using someone else's Bookshare account and I didn't want to get that person in trouble. Yesterday evening I finished listening to season one of Serial. After I'd finished that particular podcast I looked at the next podcast to see whether there were more episodes about Adnan's case. It's a good thing I checked because in between episodes of an entirely different story there were a few more podcast episodes of Serial that were about Adnan's case. Still though those few podcast episodes don't tell the podcast listeners what actually happened to Adnan (whether he'd actually committed the murder nor do those few podcast episodes tell the listeners who did commit the murder if it wasn't Adnan who did it). Those few podcast episodes also didn't tell the listeners whether Adnan finished his jail time or not. Still the podcast Serial is really well-done and I'd highly recommend listening to said podcast to anyone. This morning was actually when I finished listening to Adnan's story in its entirety. A while after I'd listened to Adnan's story in its entirety I received an email from Apple saying that the Senior Advisor who'd taken my case would call me a little bit later than she'd initially planned to. Fortunately though when I talked to her she was able to tell me that the only solution she'd come up with was for me to contact Apple's training department and make that particular department aware of the situation I was in regarding the AppleCare Technician Training not being fully accessible with VoiceOver. I told her that from the get-go I'd contacted Apple's training department to ask someone from that department if the AppleCare Technician Training would be fully accessible with VoiceOver. The person from Apple's training department who'd emailed back and forth with me had assured me that the Applecare Technician Training would be fully accessible with VoiceOver so I purchased said training. The only reason I'd purchased said training was because I'd thought that it would be fully accessible using VoiceOver as someone from Apple's training department had told me it would. I then told the Senior Advisor that I'd sent Apple's training department several emails since then letting them know that I'm still having issues with VoiceOver not reading most of the information that's on Apple's training modules. I've not heard from Apple's training department in a while which is very disheartening because i'd really hoped that I could be an equal participant in this training. So anyway the Senior Advisor who'd taken my case told me that she'd talk to the right people to see if I could get a refund. I told her that it hurts my heart to do that but that at this point getting a refund seems like my best option. She then told me that she could put me on hold while she tried to talk to people higher up than her at Apple about processing my refund. However it turned out that she had to call me back because I didn't want to wait on the phone for half an hour or more while she found out exactly what needed to be done. So half an hour or so after I'd gotten off the phone with her she called me back to inform me that Apple needed the sales number that was emailed to me when I'd purchased the training. So I told her that a friend of mine had actually purchased the training for me so I'd have to contact him to see if he still had that information. She said that was fine and agreed to call me this coming Monday to see if I have that information yet. So after I'd gotten off the phone with her the second time I texted my friend who'd purchased the AppleCare Technician Training for me to give him the latest update from Apple regarding said training. I then sent another text message to my friend to let him know that Apple plans to call me this coming Monday to see if I have the information that that particular company needs to process a refund for me. My friend texted me back a little while later with the order number. I then emailed the order number to the email address that the Senior Advisor at Apple who'd taken my case had emailed me from. Hopefully the email address that I emailed was actually hers and she'll have the number she needs to process this refund for me. So on that note here's a letter of self-compassion that I wrote to myself regarding this recent bit of news: Dear Chelsea, in many ways you are 100 percent confident in your skin and in who you are. Although this recent news that Apple's answer to helping you with this training is to give you a refund back and although you are sad about said news it still is not the end of the world nor is the AppleCare Technician Training the only possible way that you can get into Apple. There are many other ways to get into Apple and you are doing everything in your power to make that happen for yourself at some point. It's hard work to fight for what it is you truly want but in the end your heart knows that it will be sooooooo worth the wait once you are finally able to get into Apple. You know that part of living this thing called life is that every single human being has struggles in his or her life every day. Every single human being has choices that he or she can make about whether he or she wants to give up on his or her dream or continue pushing forward to make his or her dream a reality. You know that you're going to continue pushing forward even if pushing forward means that you'll likely have to do the Braille certification that you'd recently found out about. Because what you really want to make happen for yourself right now is to work. You want to be able to support yourself and eventually get your own apartment again. You also know that your heart can still be with Apple even though you are going to do other things in addition to filling out applications for Apple and going to Apple Stores and networking with people there who may be able to tell you what exactly you need to do to make yourself look hirable in Apple's eyes. Whatever you do though don't be hard on yourself. You had no way of knowing that this particular situation would be a roadblock. You trusted what Apple had told you, just as anyone would do. Continue to move forward though and don't beat yourself up for anything unexpected that happens along the way. You deserve to be as kind to yourself as you are to other people. When people criticize the way you are living your life remember that critics are everywhere. Also remember though that you deserve to be successful. You deserve to live the life you want to live. You deserve to talk openly and honestly about whatever feelings you may be experiencing, even if the feelings you may be experiencing are feelings that are not understood by the majority of society. Remember that it is okay to be angry. Remember that anger, like sadness, happiness or any other emotion that is part of the shared experience of humanity, ebbs and flows. Remember that there are many people in the world who don't take well to people who are not following the path that everyone else is following. Take comfort in that knowledge and at times when you need a pick-me-up reminder, remind yourself that the world would be boring as fuck if everyone did the same thing, talked in the same way, ate the same foods ETC. Remind yourself that all of what makes you beautiful Chelsea is the fact that you are not someone who conforms to others. Remind yourself that the reason some people in the world don't take well to your strong personality is because you know what you want, what you need and you will see to it that all of your needs are met. People don't like to tell you that they are intimidated by your personality at times...but embrace that, girlfriend!! Love everything about yourself at all times, even Mrs. Tigress. You are a fucking queen. Tell that to yourself every fucking day not only because it's true but because you need to have inner-peace with how beautiful a human being you are.