Dear Readers,
Life through my eyes is about to change drastically in the coming weeks! I will have a new set of eyes watching out for me. On Monday, February 2, I will be traveling to The Seeing Eye in New Jersey for a 3.5 week training with my new seeing eye dog!
Many people have asked me about my thoughts on dog guides after having a dog from a different dog guide school about five years ago. As many people know, the dog I received at this other school was not a good match for me. She cried through my college classes and preferred chasing squirrels to guiding me. After seven months of working, she was "career changed" and sent back to her puppy raisers to be their pet.
At the time, this experience was heartbreaking. I would be lying if I said it didn't hurt anymore. I did not receive appropriate and timely help from the school's trainers. I also loved my dog, Sandy, very much. Still, I was in a good place in life where I didn't necessarily need a dog guide all of the time. I was living near my college campus and had become extremely independent in traveling.
For many years, I thought I didn't need a dog guide. I have excellent navigation skills and am able to travel in both new and familiar places. I even lived in Chicago for a few months as am intern and freely used the L and other transit with no assistance from others.
So what changed? Why did I decide to apply to Seeing Eye? A few key things took place.
First, I have been encouraged ever since I lost Sandy that I should reapply. I have many friends on the blindness community who benefit each day from these four-legged companions. My friends have commented on how well I traveled when I had Sandy and how much more confident I would be with a new guide. Still, I didn't think I needed the confidence boost until this past summer.
The second situation is that I will be attending law school starting in September. While I am still deciding where to attend, I know that I will be in either a large or medium sized city. I will have many new places to go where I must maintain as much if not more professionalism than my fully sighted peers in order to prove myself as a successful law student and future lawyer.
The third and final push towards getting a new dog happened on June 5, 2014. I was walking home from campus just as I did every day after work in the summer. I waited at the intersection, one where I could actually see the pedestrian light. I began to walk when the walk signal turned on and was hit by a car turning right on red. The woman was not paying attention and did not look for pedestrians before accelerating.
At first I was angry. I wasn't so much mad at the woman as I was at the situation itself. I couldn't be too angry at her, because how many times have I missed something because I wasn't paying attention in life? That said I've never zoned out when driving a car... OK I've never driven a car! But I was so upset at the fact that I did everything right and still got hurt. I was mad that as a lifelong pedestrian I couldn't feel safe crossing a street. And I was mad that I felt I might need to use my white cane more often just to alert drivers who can't pay attention.
I'm all for using a white cane when needed. I have many friends who benefit from them. For me, however, my cane often causes so much confusion that it hardly helps. I do not appear to be visually impaired. I cannot tell you how many times people have seen me using a cane and became angry at me for faking blindness.
As a quick side note, THAT'S RIDICULOUS! Yes, I'm faking being blind...I'm not ever driving a car or playing sports just so I can get large print tests and be first in line on rides at Disney. Yep, that was my plan all along...But in all seriousness, this is a huge issue in our society. We think of blind or sighted, deaf or hearing, intellectually impaired or perfectly normal brained. We struggle to see the in between that impacts so many people. I'll have to blog more about this issue later but thought I'd throw it out there.
Anyway, as I said, using a white cane doesn't fit my needs very well. Still, through these experiences, I realized that I do have a need for a dog. I need safety. I can be Miss Independent all I want, but if someone doesn't watch where they're going while driving, my mobility skills no longer matter.
I cannot wait to confidently travel with my new dog. I am excited to see all of the many journeys we will go on together. Stay tuned for more!
Sjc
