Amazing people

As I have travelled through this low vision thing I have had the privilege to meet some of the most amazing people.  I don’t know if it is because I now have time to really LISTEN to people’s stories or it just happens to be the people whose path I cross.  I just know that listening to others who are in varying stages of vision loss have some cool experiences, both before and after vision loss.  I know several people that have been given some awesome opportunities to volunteer and give their time to different endeavors in spite of their vision issues.  I think what is most important to me as I travel on this journey, is every story gives me hope.  It gives me hope in a future I still don’t know anything about.   I knew what I was going to do at a very young age. I knew sometime in elementary school I wanted to do something in genetics.  I studied hard in college, worked as an undergraduate researcher, did summer programs at Sandoz Crop Protection and Genentech, and then went on to graduate and get a job in biotechnology.  My degree is actually a B.S. in Biological Sciences with an emphasis in Molecular Biology and a minor in Chemistry.  I love the fields of genetics and immunology most.  I got to work for almost five years in both of those disciplines as well as protein chemistry and virology. I love science, coming up with hypotheses the process of trial and error, and determining if they will work or not.  I love to solve problems, and the more challenging the task the harder I work and the more joy I get from the process.  How ironic that I have education and training in something that is dealing with stuff on such a small scale?  It is really hard for me to completely shut the door on that part of my life.  I spent so much time planning and training for this field it is like having a limb amputated to give it up for good.  Do I know for certain that I can’t do anything related to this field?  No, I do not know that for certain.  I do, however, make a lot of assumptions based on how slow I go these days because of my disability and that there are probably a lot of normal sighted folks out there that can get the work done faster and more efficiently. I guess I have to spend more time listening and walking this journey before I know whether that door is to be shut or not. I do know what aspects I would leave behind.  I would let go of all the politics of corporate America and the bottom line being profits and not the people that the product helps. I need to focus on what I am passionate about and what I seriously would consider as a career and veer away from all the fear, politics and agendas that can bog that process down. Having a disability forces you to become minimalist, not out of want but out of necessity. Think of it like you would if you were in the wilderness and got injured.  You have to pare down everything for sheer survival. That is how living with a disability is; you have to pare all the unnecessary minutia of life and deal with just the necessities.