I like to stay physically active and I do that by pole dancing, running, swimming and now and then I use my race bike (besides from being Dutch and biking a lot to get from A to B). Unfortunately, I am visually impaired (starting since my 14th I have no central vision anymore, macular degeneration/Stargardt’s Disease, vision of about 5%).
In some of my previous posts I wrote about what person I would be if I did not became visually impaired. I told you that I would be more outgoing and that hopefully I would feel less insecure all the time. Because being visually impaired often makes you feel insecure. It’s not just me, I hear it from other visually impaired people too. You want to know what to expect, which way you are going, how/where to enter a building, what type of behaviour is accepted. This last one sounds a bit weird but still. People in general often do what we see or learn from others. But if you can’t see how other people act, it can make you feel insecure about how to act around those people. You want to fit in, or at least not do anything weird or stupid.
(p.s. yes, I have guns haha, mainly because of pole dancing).
In this case, I am talking about the etiquettes of swimming.
When I first started swimming every Friday morning, I had to learn the practical parts like where the changing room for women is, where I can put my bag, which area of the pool I could use to swim laps. For most people this is not even something they think about, they just go to the pool and do what they came for (because they can see the people around them, they can see the signs that points them in the right direction). But for me it’s different. I want to know those things so I don’t get lost, So I can be prepared, so I can fit in, so that I am not doing something that am not supposed to do (like swim in a lane that is only for the fastest swimmers or accidentally change clothes in the men’s changing room haha).
Of course life usually always doesn’t work this way, you have to learn by trial and error. With or without a disability, everyone makes mistakes. Yeah,yeah, I know, I know haha. But when you can do something about it beforehand, it can make you feel more secure about what you are doing. So why not do something about it?
The reason I’ve explained this to you is because I am trying not to let my visual impairment hold me back in life from doing the things I want to do. I want to be and feel independent. And for people like me, that sometimes askes for a bit more confidence and guts to just do them haha.
So there was a four-day swimming thing that you could join and after the four days you could get a participation medal. I really wanted to participate but nobody could join me in my swimming schedule and I did not want to be dependent on others. Normally I would have said: too bad, maybe next year. But in the spirit of not holding myself back anymore, I just went there and did it! Yes, by myself.
So I went to the swimming pool in my city. They have a whole new area of pools outside that I have never been before so I had absolutely no idea which pool I could use for the four days of swimming or where to go to get changed, etc. One day prior to the event, I walked up to a woman who worked at the pool and I explained to her that I would like to participate in the event but that I am visually impaired and did not know how it all works here. I asked for a tour, which se happily gave me. The next day I could participate without any troubles or feelings of insecurity.
So the bottom line is. Do what you want to do and don’t let yourself be dependent on others. Take charge of your life or get the guts to do so haha. If I can do it, so do you!