A Day In The Life Of A Blind Person Traveling

[chelseajmunoz]

Yesterday a friend and I went to a comedy club to see Gabriel Iglesias (a comedian we both enjoy). Since my friend and I are both blind though we had to plan out our day to a T. The day before yesterday my friend checked the train schedules online so that we'd be able to figure out when we'd need to leave. So as it turned out my friend and I left the apartment close to 2:00 in the afternoon. We took Uber to the train station. Once we'd arrived at the train station we knew there wasn't much time before the train we needed to take left the train station. Someone came up to me and asked where we were trying to get to so I told the guy where we needed to go. Fortunately the guy gave my friend and I good directions and we successfully found the correct train. As my friend and I walked around the train station though he showed me how there were placards on the walls that had Braille on them to indicate to a blind person which trains were nearby. I'd never seen that kind of accessibility before and even though it's a small thing to have available for blind people, knowing that someone had thought of blind people rather than blind people being an afterthought really spoke volumes to me. Once my friend and I'd finally gotten on the train, it took us a couple hours to get to the next train station where we'd catch another train to continue our journey. Once we'd arrived to the second train station we didn't have long before the train we needed to catch left the station. Once we'd made it to the train though a lady who was nearby assumed I needed help getting onto the train. However I was doing just fine on my own. I'd walked with my friend up to the train and I'd found a handle that I could use to help me get onto the train independently. As I was in the process of lifting one foot up onto the first step though this lady I mentioned above, grabbed onto my waist tightly. I continued to get onto the train. However upon realizing that this lady had no intention of letting me go I made up my mind to keep moving. So I firmly said "Let me go." She continued to hold onto me with a tight grip. I very firmly said again "Let me go." Again she kept a tight hold on me. So I continued to move. By the time I'd firmly told the lady to let me go a second time I was already completely on the train, making my way around the train to find a seat. Once my friend and I'd finally found somewhere to sit the lady let go of me. As I said in my first blog post I don't mind letting people do their good deed. However just as sighted people sometimes don't want to be bothered by others, the same is true for me. Especially in a situation like yesterday, where I had somewhere to be and not a lot of time to educate that lady why what she was doing was unhelpful to me. Sometimes it really gets tiring to explain things to people about how we as blind people are not much different from sighted people. Sometimes, like yesterday, I wanted nothing more than to enjoy the day with my friend. I didn't want to have to think about how some sighted people think it's so amazing that blind people actually want to see the world. Here is a secret: eyesight is not the only thing that makes life meaningful. By the same token a lack of eyesight does not automatically mean that the blind person you see is helpless. Some people (whether sighted people or blind people) are helpless. Other people (whether sighted people or blind people) are not helpless. Those people actually enjoy their independence. Those same people enjoy connecting with others, traveling alone or with other people (whether those people are blind or sighted). Mostly though those people, like many sighted people, just want to live their lives quietly and as stress-free as possible. So I write this blog entry to try and convey the fact that blind people are human too. We get lost, we fall down, we sometimes fuck up in our daily interactions with people...but we put on our pants just like sighted people put on their pants. If you're someone who doesn't know what blind people are capable of, give us a chance to show you. Give us a chance to fall down, to fuck up, to succeed at life's curveballs and blessings. Because in allowing us to experience those things just like you experience those things, you would in turn be showing us that you trust us as the grown adults that we are, to be human. That is all we as blind people want from anyone: to be treated and loved as an equal, not looked at as an alien. Please give us this gift, you may be surprised at how that kindness will help us go through life together in love and peace rather than going through life together in annoyance and frustration.