Over the passing of time, it so happened that we were going to move away from the farmers field subdivision. I had to leave my friends, my best friend who would hang out on the swings at recess every day. The world was about to get bigger, and I didn’t want it to. I was nine. Since when is change necessary? I’m glad it happened. Change is a good thing every once in a while. We were headed to the coast. Even though I had to start over making friends, a lot of these folks are still friends to this day, no matter where we happen to be in this world.
As you get older you learn responsibility. I had chores at home. My main one was taking out the compost. Embrace the dirty things in life. That way they will get over with sooner. At Church one of my friends and I were in charge of the old over head projector. I would slide the transparencies of song lyrics onto the glass part and my friend would take them off. Teamwork keeps everyone on the same page.
School, Christmases and summers passed by. During one week of each summer when I wasn’t hanging out at the cottage, I would go to Bayside Camp, where to my amazement, the girls DIDN’T think I had cooties. This opened the doors to being able to make twice as many friends as normal. None of us managed to stay friends forever like we would lie in our notebooks to each other when it was time to do that sort of thing. Along with all the regular summer camp things they also taught kids and teens about Jesus. It was during the morning worship time one late July day that I felt God telling me to take Him more seriously. That would have been the day that the Holy Spirit did a transforming work in my life and I became a Christian. July 28, 1999. Jesus was always a part of our family in everything we do. The thing is, God has children, not grand children. He wanted His own special relationship with me too. Not just my parents. Not because I’m good enough. He keeps wanting to love me, and for me to love Him too. I still mess up at this every day and He still keeps being faithful on His end. I want to do the things that make Him happy, but by no means does being a Christian mean I’ll never make mistakes ever again. Just hopefully less of them. I’m so glad it’s not a performance thing. Jesus’ death and resurrection has changed the trajectory of my life forever. From hopelessness to hope. The joy is not dependent on circumstances. He’s not a genie who gives me whatever I want. He gives actual good gifts and discipline, because God loves me. I could write for a long time about just this part of my life alone.
I kept learning more and more about Jesus in a deeper way than in the past. More than just reading a Bible story with Dad before bed. I am thankful for those times because they shaped me for later. On November 4, 2001 I was baptized. Telling the Church family publicly about the change the Holy Spirit had already made inside me. Going down into wthe water to symbolize Christ’s death and burial. Coming back out to symbolizes resurrection and new life. On top of that some of my best friends also got baptized on the same night.
I’m a guy. Girls were pretty. I’m not a complicated person.
As I mentioned before, my mom taught me piano from a young age. I switched over to guitar so I would have a shot at playing on the Church’s worship team. Eventually they needed me to play bass more…so I learned that too. During this time I also formed a band with two of my best friends. We were a three piece band. The singer guy also played guitar, myself on bass, and my other fiend on drums. The singer guy’s parents let us play in a small room in their basement as often as we wanted to. Those were some creative musical times. We didn’t know what we couldn’t do. Sometimes the adults would even let us teenagers lead the music part of worship on some Sunday mornings. We were pretty loud, but they kept giving us opportunities and listening to us improve from above. I don’t know if they had earplugs or not, but they kept inviting us back regularly. Even after that time where I bled all over my bass after playing too fast.
In the midst of all of that, i graduated High School in June 2007. My High School had a graduating class of 400 that year. I was the 30th person across the stage. The video guy fainted with four people to go. Went to Prom, made smart decisions. Took one of my friends, since I knew a lot of her friends would also be there. Thought it would be fun for all of us to hang out together. Turns out I was right. I had plans to go to University in the fall. Supposedly I was off to change the world.
Being Visually Impaired
I wouldn’t say it’s my defining personality trait. People assume it is, but for me it’s not true. It is a thing that’s there though, so to sweep it under the rug and wait for it to go away is just not going to work out. I don’t want to become one of those old men who just talk about their injuries. So, may as well hash this out while I’m still somewhat young. I’m nearsighted. Each time I go to my eye doctor the measurement numbers get a little worse. I can’t tell any difference in my regular day to day seeing. I am Legally Blind, that’s my category. As of this writing I can still see lots close up. Distance is more difficult. It depends on how big the font of the letters are. The lighting conditions also make a difference.
Trips to the eye doctor were and are still not my favourite thing. I go all year trying to not poke myself in the eye, and then the first thing they do is test me for glaucoma. This involves freezing my eye briefly, and then poking it. Then they test my vision with one eye and I can’t focus as well as with two. That’s the point though. Then they do drops to make my pupils big. Then it’s time to take a picture of my retna and shine other bright lights in there to see what’s going on. On TV it never takes as long as it does for me in real life. It’s an all day event. Then it’s over, and I get to go get new glasses. And then the cycle repeats itself next time. I have my next appointment soon. We shall see what the damage is then, and I can update this section.
Through school people would say everyone was equal and there were no differences between people, but I always wondered why other people could see just fine from the back of the class while I had to be up front no matter what. Not that I wanted to get away with anything. There’s plenty of trouble to be had without looking for it as life goes on. However, that is not the point of this section. I always felt like I had to prove myself about 10 times more than the average person to make up for my disability. This has ended up working out well in work situations as an adult though, so I won’t say it was a bad thing. I’d always get the question “Can you do this?” which usually follows up with a “I’ll try my best. I’ll tell you when I actually can’t do something.”
I thought my 16th birthday was going to be pointless, since I knew driving was not in my future ever, but it actually turned out to be pretty good.
I’ve never been good at seeing in dark spaces. The most memorable moment was at Prom. I’m a terrible dancer but I tried. I’m only good at the slow stuff. It was a slow song so you waltz in those situations right? If you don’t waltz, you fake it. One of my friends from Church and I were waltzing and this guy comes up behind me and tries to pull us apart without asking. I said something to the effect of “Frig off, we’re dancing.” I’m not very good at being tough or swearing and I don’t use those words. I couldn’t see where he was exactly. I accidentally bonked into him, knocking him over on to the ground. My friend and I went to a less crowded spot where I found out he was another friend of hers, just like me. I felt bad for knocking him over. I’m not quite as much of a klutz as an adult now. Sometimes, it still happens though.
My friends are all good with it. Some try to over help. I remember one kayaking trip I took with a group of people. The kayaking instructor took piano lessons from my mom, so we were already all good friends. She knew I was visually impaired, and as we were walking across the wooden warf toward the kayaks, she would call out every single crack in between the little pieces of wood, even though they were a non issue. I never liked the “You inspire me!” moments they would try to have. What would you do? Just lay in bed and die? Somehow I don’t think so. Somehow I think you’d try your best every day too. Even if your best and my best look different.
The most complaints I get about my vision come after I do dishes. Most of the time it’s fine. Sometimes, I miss bits and pieces, which is not my goal. I don’t want anyone to be unhealthy because of me. I really am trying to do my best. I know other people just want me to give up and focus on whatever my strengths are, but how am I supposed to grow as a person if I don’t try my hardest to get better at dishes? My dream is for my friends to not have to worry about that aspect one day. The only way that can happen is for me to keep trying to get better at doing the dishes. Ray Charles was completely blind and he still had to do dishes. Nobody complained about that. Perhaps the piano playing and singing made up for it.
My favourite part of being near sighted happens at Christmas time. If I take my glasses off in front of the Christmas Tree lights, it looks like the craziest thing ever. It’s hard to describe to anyone else, and there’s no way to take a picture of it. You just have to take my word for it that it’s cool and you’re missing out.