An Introduction
Welcome to my little corner of the internet.
My name is Jennifer, as you may have gathered already, and I am at the time of writing this, a 43 year old blind woman living on the east coast of Canada. Professionally, I am a registered massage therapist and recreationally a writer, though up until recently I haven't been writing as much as I wanted to, or at all.
Most people are curious about the blind thing. To be precise, I have zero vision in my right eye, and light perception in my left along with the ability to see colour and sometimes motion if the light is just right. Too dark, and obviously I get nothing, but that also happens if it's too bright. I haven't always had this level of vision. In fact I have both had much more and much less, running the gamut from 20/80 (almost enough to drive) to utter darkness, though the right eye has been blind since roughly age five or six. I'm of the mindset that I don't focus on what I've lost, but rather what I've gained back.
The massage therapy thing is a career I took on in my thirties. I'd wanted to pursue it for a long time, but never did. Right up until I decided that enough was enough. I've been doing it for six years now, and absolutely love it. I like people, or at least I like people in one on one or very small group interactions, and this career path lets me help and also get to know a variety of interesting and wonderful folks. Yes, it is hard work, but it's also almost insanely fulfilling.
As to the writing, I've been doing it since I was a child. I've always been a bookworm, and my mother encouraged me to write. She insists that I won a lot of writing contests when I was young, though I'm convinced she's mixing my sister and I up, as she's also exceedingly skilled with words. The only contest I remember winning was in the summer before I started ninth grade, and involved writing a ghost story which, if I recall correctly, was called The Will and The Orb. Which now seems a bit pretentious, but I was fourteen, so allowances must be made.
I've written short stories on and off, more often than not leaving them unfinished as I ran out of steam or got distracted. I've always wanted to write a book, but if you think a short story was hard for me to finish, imagine me going for a novel?
Since starting the massage thing, I've written a lot less. I get the ideas, but tend to just daydream about them and leave them at that, while simultaneously telling myself that I could write a darned good book some day and of course get it published. The book you never write can safely be thought of as a sure winner. But 100% of the books you never write aren't going to see the light of day.
Recently, though, I've decided that once again enough is enough. To paraphrase a recent Facebook post I made, writing is like a muscle. If you don't use it, it atrophies. If you want to strengthen it you have to consistently use it.
I set myself a goal. Write something every day. Even if it's only a paragraph. Even if it's only a snippet of dialogue for something else. Because I do want to write a book, but a whole book is really, really intimidating. But writing a paragraph isn't. It is the kind of goal I can meet, and I have. For a week and a half, I have written at least one paragraph a day. More often than not, I write a lot more than that. It's all been book-related, but it doesn't need to be.
That's where this blog comes in. Here, I'll be writing about a lot of things. About being blind, and the humour that can bring as well as the harder things, though I more often than not see the humour rather than the struggles. About working in my industry. About writing itself. About things that interest me. I've decided not to set a certain focus at the outset, though I make no promises that that will always be the case.
So. Deep breath, best foot forward, and let's see where this goes.
My name is Jennifer, as you may have gathered already, and I am at the time of writing this, a 43 year old blind woman living on the east coast of Canada. Professionally, I am a registered massage therapist and recreationally a writer, though up until recently I haven't been writing as much as I wanted to, or at all.
Most people are curious about the blind thing. To be precise, I have zero vision in my right eye, and light perception in my left along with the ability to see colour and sometimes motion if the light is just right. Too dark, and obviously I get nothing, but that also happens if it's too bright. I haven't always had this level of vision. In fact I have both had much more and much less, running the gamut from 20/80 (almost enough to drive) to utter darkness, though the right eye has been blind since roughly age five or six. I'm of the mindset that I don't focus on what I've lost, but rather what I've gained back.
The massage therapy thing is a career I took on in my thirties. I'd wanted to pursue it for a long time, but never did. Right up until I decided that enough was enough. I've been doing it for six years now, and absolutely love it. I like people, or at least I like people in one on one or very small group interactions, and this career path lets me help and also get to know a variety of interesting and wonderful folks. Yes, it is hard work, but it's also almost insanely fulfilling.
As to the writing, I've been doing it since I was a child. I've always been a bookworm, and my mother encouraged me to write. She insists that I won a lot of writing contests when I was young, though I'm convinced she's mixing my sister and I up, as she's also exceedingly skilled with words. The only contest I remember winning was in the summer before I started ninth grade, and involved writing a ghost story which, if I recall correctly, was called The Will and The Orb. Which now seems a bit pretentious, but I was fourteen, so allowances must be made.
I've written short stories on and off, more often than not leaving them unfinished as I ran out of steam or got distracted. I've always wanted to write a book, but if you think a short story was hard for me to finish, imagine me going for a novel?
Since starting the massage thing, I've written a lot less. I get the ideas, but tend to just daydream about them and leave them at that, while simultaneously telling myself that I could write a darned good book some day and of course get it published. The book you never write can safely be thought of as a sure winner. But 100% of the books you never write aren't going to see the light of day.
Recently, though, I've decided that once again enough is enough. To paraphrase a recent Facebook post I made, writing is like a muscle. If you don't use it, it atrophies. If you want to strengthen it you have to consistently use it.
I set myself a goal. Write something every day. Even if it's only a paragraph. Even if it's only a snippet of dialogue for something else. Because I do want to write a book, but a whole book is really, really intimidating. But writing a paragraph isn't. It is the kind of goal I can meet, and I have. For a week and a half, I have written at least one paragraph a day. More often than not, I write a lot more than that. It's all been book-related, but it doesn't need to be.
That's where this blog comes in. Here, I'll be writing about a lot of things. About being blind, and the humour that can bring as well as the harder things, though I more often than not see the humour rather than the struggles. About working in my industry. About writing itself. About things that interest me. I've decided not to set a certain focus at the outset, though I make no promises that that will always be the case.
So. Deep breath, best foot forward, and let's see where this goes.
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