Cherish

I snapped open the door of the van and walked with students from Andover and Riverside. After just a few steps, we sat down in a circle to discuss our goals for the day. Each of us was given blindfolds by Suja in order to experience perception without vision. As I hesitantly covered my eyes with a blindfold, the world around me seemed to disappear. Despite my remaining senses, I felt incapable without my sight. Within a matter of steps, I slightly opened my eyes and began to faintly become aware of my surroundings. I began to rely on my vision behind the blindfold as a crutch to fall back on when I became disoriented. Since I couldn’t rationalize the purpose of the exercise, I wasn’t able to fully commit myself. We gathered in the campus courtyard to play a game that relied on a person’s sense of direction. At this point, I decided to fully commit to the blindfold and close my eyes for the activity. The point of the game was to walk in a straight line and hit the stick forwards when you neared the bucket. I walked slowly through the trial run, and I followed the sound of Tanisha’s drumming on the bucket. Then I returned to the starting point to walk on my own. I put my hands up in order to orient myself directly forwards. I took only a few steps forward, and then paused to pace myself. Finally, after a few sessions of walking forward, I stopped and made contact between the stick and the bucket. I had trusted my sense of direction to get me there, which proved successful. My fearlessness in that moment allowed me to understand the truth about the Design for Change project. I realized that the project was about cherishing the love of students at the blind school, and understanding what would truly impact their lives in a positive manner.

--Alex