What can I say? In two and a half weeks, on august 24th, I will be 30 years old. This feels like a very significant birthday for me, and it will begin a new phase in my life (not old, but headed towards middle adulthood in the Erikson’s stages of life). Depending on who you talk to, 30 can be viewed as young or old: last week a 23 year old girl at the VCB institute called me “over-the-hill”. On the other hand, people who are 40 or 45 years old thought that I was still pretty young.
Overall, I feel satisfied with the fact that I have done so much by the age of 30: I’m graduating from lehman in December with a BSW (and currently a 3.9 GPA, sorry I don’t mean to brag, actually yes, I do), , I owned a business, made a few close friends, and found and lost love. Isn’t that quite a lot of things to accomplish early in life?
I have big plans for the future: (trust me on this one, I wouldn’t just say “big plans” without really meaning it): first, I plan to get my masters degree in social work by the end of 2011. Next, I want to find a job where I can help people with disabilities like myself. Next, I will start hanging out with Bill Gates in order to try to get a part of that Microsoft fortune (just kidding, maybe).
All joking aside, I am proud that I am totally blind and totally independent (well, maybe not totally, but I can at least manage my little money, cook a little and be somewhat self-sufficient). I don’t want to become a statistic, one of those people with disabilities who is unemployed. No matter how long it takes, I have a firm belief that I can find the right job with ambition, motivation, perserverance, and connections? (For me, it’s not who I know but what I know, that’s why I watch Jeopardy).
Stay tuned for the next exciting and action-packed episode of: blind blog!
Dan