When I was in the elementary grades, the gym teacher had a very evil way of helping society force a tier system. The gym teacher would pick two of the popular kids and then say for them to pick their team mates. What did that feel like for those of us who were not part of the popular group? The best you could hope for was that you were not the last one standing as it were. One by one the cards were divided until everyone was evenly distributed.

That is how blindness feels some days. I am standing in a line with others who all have various gifts and abilities, but because of a visual issue, I am relegated to the end of the picking order. In your head you can scream “Pick me!!” After a while you see this game played over and over and it would be easy to see yourself as a bottom feeder like others are trying to convince you of.

In a recent job interview I had an opportunity to tell a prospective employer why I would be the best candidate for that job. Then she asked me to tell her of a specific incidence that did not end up well, and what I did. Man, in my mind I was going through the chronicled list.

My response was simple and truthful. I hate it when I am disregarded based on the person’s prejudice. I get victory over those issues when I am allowed to show that I can do what they first thought I was incapable of. Here is the problem. Due to prejudice, I am not often given the chance to show that I have the skills and abilities to be successful. The moment is lost, the educating does not happen, and I am once again standing in the gym while everyone else is picked.

Since the one thing I have in my favor is perseverance, I keep moving forward looking for the opportunity to enlighten someone else about their opinions of people in the world that are different.

What would have happened if the gym teacher would have let us who were always picked last to do the picking? I can tell you what would have happened, we would have filled our plate full of the popular people first and not the reverse of leaving them till last like we had been. It is all human nature. We all want to be accepted.

People are not looking to see if you are tenacious enough to stick it out. In fact their purpose is to prove that you do not have the starch to stay in the race. They then can say with an affirmation that they were right in their assessment. After all, the Grand Canyon was worn away by water that kept going over the same ground for a long time.

This is one reason that the low vision blogs are so important. It does not allow the feeling of a wildebeest to be segmented to the end of the herd and devoured. It almost forces unity based on the commonality of understanding.
I have felt alone on an island and looked around and saw no one like myself. It was harder in those instances to keep on fighting.

I want a job. I want a place. I want an opportunity to educate and change a small fragment of the fabric of my world.

Blessings, Denise
http://seeingdifferences.com/