Living with blindness in a visual world

I lick my finger, and gently rub the fresh saliva on one eye and then the other. I close my eyes, and a few seconds later open my eyes again, hoping everything would be different. But no, nothing has changed!

This was a typical night in my teens, more than 15 years ago. You see I was born in China in the early 1980s. I was diagnosed with a degenerating eye condition at the age of six that would slowly chew up almost all of my central vision until I would be legally blind, not being able to see the top line on the eye charts.

The diagnosis was devistating for my mum, because it meant that in China I wouldn’t get an education, would have trouble living independently, let alone have any meaningful job prospects. At this time my mum made a brave and radical decision, a decision to bring me to Australia. I’m forever thankful for the incredible sacrifices my mum had to make in bringing me to Australia and raising me on her own.

Bullying and loneliness accompanied me throughout my childhood

At school, I experienced frequent bullying and loneliness as I struggled to fit in. My mum would work two or three jobs to keep our family financially afloat, so when I returned home from school each day, there still weren’t anyone around for me to talk to and to reassure me that everything was going to be OK.

Time and time again, I despaired, wishing everything would be different, that I would see normally again, that I would have a complete family,and would have friends that understood me. I longed to be loved and accepted.

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In 2003 everything changed

Growing up, I hated anything to do with religion. I thought to myself, if God existed, why did he make me the way that I am. But in 2003, my best friend, Jason, started going to church and invited me to go with him. I was hesitant at first, but since he is my best friend, I decided to go and check it out.

I enjoyed that first experience so much, that I decided to go again and again. Within several months, my life was radically changed. There I had profound experiences of God and experienced unconditional love from the church family. I felt I had returned home, and I started my journey towards becoming a more social and comfident person.

My life now

There have been so many wonderful people who have contributed to helping me become the person I am today. I will forever remember the volunteers that came to my place to read text books and study notes to me because I couldn’t see the text. It is because of those wonderful people (Francie and Colleen), that I have been able to graduate with a double degree, and a job in the Australian Government.

I have been blessed with a wonderful wife and a gorgeous son. Life is good!

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Navigating Steemit with my ears

Without enough eye sight to read text on a computer screen or mobile phone, my experience of Steemit is entirely auditory. Through the use of a screen reader/text to speech software, I listen carefully as the synthesized voices read back to me the content you have put together. I intend to describe in more detail about this in a future post.

Thank you for letting me share my story with you all on Steemit.

I am so greatful to be able to share my story amongst such a supportive community.

I want to take this opportunity to thank a few individuals I’ve come across on Steemit so far, who’s posts I’ve found very informative and inspiring: Thanks to @steemship for many helpful posts for us newbies Thanks to @donkeypong for putting together a post that made a big impression on me about how Steemit can be used for remitances Thanks to @cryptogee for The very interesting spotlight posts

You guys are the ones that make Steemit such a wonderful community, and I hope to be part of this journey with you all.

Jimmy