SUE INSPIRES:COBHAMS ASUQUO

Lessons to learn from the life of a blind man;
While reading this I learnt so much,so I decided to share but these lessons could be impossible and at the same time it depends on the kind of people you are surrounded with and what you think about yourself.......

Enjoy...

"I’m a dreamer, and fortunately for me, a lot of things I have dreamt about in my life have come true. I believe strongly that one of the strong elements that fuel my very strong sense of imagination and my ability to dream is the gift of blindness"----Cobhams Asuquo

Do not excuse failure for any reason:
Do not Excuse Failure, for any reason
on any account . I was born blind. No one else in my family of six children is blind. There’s no known cause. No links. No explanation. Just the reality that I cannot see with my eyes. I was born and raise in the other side of the military barracks. I lived in a small block of 18 two bedroom flats. I shared a flat with my two parents, my three siblings and whatever stray pet came out way at a time. As well as my father’s Honda Roadmaster 180 Motorcycle, which slept in the living room with me and my siblings. Now, blindness does not have any physical, psychological or social meaning. Since I’ve never experienced sight, I wasn’t aware that I was without sight. And so, I indulged in the innocence of young boyhood. I ran downstairs, jumped over gutters, played hard. Fought even harder. And got into any imaginable trouble that a skinny young child could get into.As I grew older and I gained more understanding of the intricacies of living as a sightless person in a world designed for sighted people, I was faced with the looming possibility of failure in my life. But what I actually considered to be much worse was people were ready to excuse my failure because of my disability. When I turned 10, I was enrolled in a Primary Boarding School for the Blind. Fast forward to graduation day, teachers and other well wishers
were giving us advice on going into the outside world. We were forwarned that we would come across people who be genuinely mean to us. People will snatch away our guide canes, pull out our typewriter ribbons, not give us the correct change, and generally just take advantage of us because we are blind.

Public opinions don't count:
And from my experience, and I’m sure most of you must have discovered, not all public opinion is correct opinion. So, I personally decided that I didn’t want to want to worry myself about Guide Cane Snatchers, Ribbon Type writer thieves, and the likes. I decided not to take that advice. I don’t know if it was conscious, but decided to just trust. I figured that there was so many unfortunate things in life that has happened to you regardless of whether or not you were blind. So, why should I heap on an extra burden of worry on myself just because I’m blind.

Learn to trust:
This is another lesson, and it’s a
tough one, to Trust. I have learnt this from blindness to trust. Sometimes, even when I have no reason to.Now, as a child I was quite a Kid to have fun with and play little pranks on. My older brother taught me how to jump over open street gutters so anytime I was walking with friends and they inform me that we were approaching a gutter, I would jump – No questions asked. Pretty soon, I discovered that my friends were telling me to jump even when there were no gutters. Just so they could have a laugh. But even after I found out, I still continued to jump. I chose to trust them because quite honestly, staying out of the smelly sewage gutters was very important to me. Now some people might ask. Can’t a person be too trusting? But I think trust has no expiration date. Blindness has taught me to keep trusting. To keep hoping. To keep believing.

Be focused:
Be blind to be focused Now some time ago, my wife and I, we walked into
a duty free shop at an Airport. We wanted to buy a bottle of water. Before I knew it, she had stopped by to browse through a magazine, had picked up a book seemingly normal actions for her but I found it quite alarming.Now, here we were. We went in to buy an item but ended up browsing for other stuffs. And that was when it hit me that sight, sometimes, is a distraction,now don’t get me wrong, sight is a precious gift. But on your way to your destination, what you see, can also be a big distraction from your goal. So, I have learnt that you have to be blind in order to be focused. Focus is blindness in a sense. Im sure you can relate to this because you have been focused on your goal and attained your successes by being blind to several things in your life. Now, we live in a culture that esteems sight over blindness. And associates blindness with weakness. Yet, blindness in all of its weakness.

What you think about yourself matters after-all:
I have drawn some key strength in my life’s journey. When I love the veil of childhood innocence, the brutal reality of blindness stared me in the face. Self pity, and failure loomed over my shoulder. Some, I’m sure would have excused me if I became a failure. But I found it more fulfilling to break away from the expectations of mediocrity. To successfully navigate and negotiate my way through life. Even if it ruffled the feather of those who genuinely cared about me

*whew*believe in yourself and you will be able to achieve whatever it is you desire!

Love Always

Sue!