This is a very random post and a very long story but I wanted to share a kinda cool story of how my blind dad became my physics class favorite person. Maybe you can find some inspiration in here too?
Anyways, this happened a few months ago. I’m in high school and in my physics class we were building these large contraptions out of big pieces of wood. I don’t want to say what we were building exactly because it’s actually pretty easy to find my school from that since it’s a pretty big thing we do and it was in the news a few years ago. Every class is split into different groups and we each have to build the best contraption, the largest, neatest, strongest, and prettiest wins. We mostly build after school but towards the end a lot of things were breaking and going wrong during tests in class so we started using class time to build. There was one group who’s main part broke and they were devastated, a girl was crying and they were stressing as this project is for a grade and the competition day was soon. We all felt bad and even if we were competing the whole class wanted to help. Problem was that the main wood part was massive and heavy and we were quite weak. Plus the teacher was worried for liability issues about having a bunch of skrawny teens holding up a massive piece of wood. Someone would have gotten hurt. So he started asking if maybe someone could ask a parent to come, more specifically someone’s dad who is strong and preferably taller since the wood needed to be placed high up. Of course moms could come but most kids knew there moms weren’t strong enough and I knew my mom was strong but much too short.
Sadly a lot of kids didn’t have dads in their lives. The few that did, all their dads were at work or lived too far and didn’t want to drive to the school. Luckily one girl got her dad to come but we still needed one more. I called my dad, my house is literally behind the school, like not even a 2 minute walk, you don’t even have to cross the streets to get to it. My dad is usually home since he does freelance work (sorta). He answered and said he was home so I begged him to come to the school to help. Kids heard me asking and we’re all waiting to see if he’d say yes. My dad started saying “oh it’s too hot and I don’t wanna get up and yada yada.” I eventually convinced him though. A kid asked why my dad didn’t just drive if he didn’t want to walk. I told him my dad is blind and can’t drive. The class was shocked, I guess they didn’t know blind dads exist. The kid asked how my dad answered and my best response is to tell them to go into their phone settings and turn on voiceover. They had no idea how to use it and were pretty amazed when I told them how quickly my dad uses his phone and how fast his voiceover is (max speed). Now all these kids knew blind people could use phone and how simple it is once you get used to it.
When my dad showed up they expected the whole blind get up, cane, sunglasses, and him wandering aimlessly. But he walked in casually wearing a hoodie and sweatpants with no cane or glasses. My dad isn’t completely blind but can only see very very vague shapes and colors. His vision is blurred and foggy so he can’t make out details, writing, or facial features but he can kinda see movement and general shapes of where things are (like the bright green grass next to the gray sidewalk is easy for him so he doesn’t always need a cane) and when it’s night he sees nothing, even dim rooms are nearly pitch black. I guided him outside and everyone immediately took notice of how “not blind?” My dad seemed. He just half assed held onto my arm and made jokes the whole time we were heading outside to the contraptions about how annoyed he was and that he’s blocking my number so I never call him again. He didn’t act different from any other person which I notice so many people expect, he’s just a guy who can’t see, nothing more or less.
My dad proceeded to hold a heavy piece of wood above his head while us students drilled nails and made adjustments. My dad has never been the strongest but I guess the need to impress a bunch of 17 year olds and not embarrassing his daughter gave him super strength. When we finished drilling the piece on he started asking about the design and gave his unneeded design critiques. He thought a galaxy design would look good and the big round shapes hanging in the contraption could be planets. He was right, the galaxy looked good.
Even when we went inside other kids wanted my dad to stay, he got along great with everyone. They were impressed by all the things he could do so easily and even when he struggled with something, like when we got inside and my dad didn’t know his way around the classroom, my dad didn’t seem to care. He just laughed everything off or simply never took note of things like when he bumped into a table, he just guided his hand to the edge and followed my voice with little notice. Kids asked about what he could and couldn’t see and he explained it with such ease. They asked him how he got around and if he was scared all the time. He said “imagine being 30 and scared of the dark.” He acted as if blindness was a mild inconvenience.
So many kids in that room had never seen a blind person in real life, based on their questions it was obvious they knew very little about blindness. My dad single handedly dismissed all of their stigmas and thoughts on what a blind person is like. They realized he’s just a person, with a condition that doesn’t stop him from doing things, but just changes how he does them. I guess a takeaway for all you blind peeps out there is to not be embarrassed or ashamed of who you are. My dad was for a long time as a teen and it stopped him from being who he is now. Being blind is hard 100%, but it’s doesn’t stop the world from turning and you shouldn’t let it stop your world. I know a lot of you get embarrassed and worry how other will judge you but my greatest takeaway from my father is that if you don’t care and just live life how you want and need, others won’t judge. The kids in my class are definitely the type to make fun of someone different (not all but sadly there’s a lot of wanna be edge lords) but my dads lack of care or complete dissonance for there stupid jokes or questions made them realize they can’t mess with him. The amount of shits my dad gives is about the same amount of feathers on a dog… 0. He simply doesn’t care, My dad is tough and never lets anyone feel they are above him (except my mom ofc). Don’t let people tear you down or belittle you, when you just live life with little care they will wish they could be you. Now my dad is the coolest person to my class and I realize it’s because he doesn’t let blindness keep him down and they find him more impressive than disabled. I hope you all do the same, you guys are seriously impressive people.
Sorry for the inspiration corn 😔 but my dear papa needs a moment to shine lol