By Jeff Thompson

(Editor’s Note: Jeff Thompson is a member of our Metro Chapter, a graduate of Blindness: Learning in New Dimensions (BLIND), and the president of our student division. He currently teaches industrial arts at BLIND. He is a winner of a 2006 NFB national scholarship, and plans to continue his education in history and political science at the University of Minnesota.)

Back in 1998 I lost my eyesight due to angioid streaks. A State Services for the Blind (SSB) counselor came to my home, and after talking to me, told me she knew where I should go.

So I went to a rehab center part-time. They gave me a whole selection of things to choose from, so I picked what I wanted. My doctor said I might have peripheral vision for quite a while, so I went with that.

After I left there, I went to the Minneapolis Community and Technical College (MCTC) and got involved in things and was winging it. I did some work in the Office of Students with Disabilities—they have a CCTV there so it was a great place for me, because I didn't want to appear blind. I went on and got involved in and became president of the student senate, and did other things. I became vice president of the Minnesota State College Student Association, which worked on legislation, and that was kind of fun and interesting. But slowly college began to get a little tougher because I wasn't using Braille or hardly any of the other blindness skills.

A friend of mine that I was rooming with had a friend from Hawaii named Virgil Stennitz. He invited us to go to the 2000 NFB Convention. He had a free room, so I went there but didn't partake in too much. I went to the exhibits, or the "toy store" as I called it, and looked at viewers and magnifiers. I checked out the trains and things in Atlanta while Virgil went to his meetings, and we would meet up later.

I continued school but I was struggling due to the lack of confidence and not using blindness skills. During that time, my dad was going through Parkinson's and Alzheimer's diseases, so I went to take care of him for two years. My sisters decided to care for him then, and I realized I could get back to my schooling, but I knew I had hit kind of a wall. I knew I couldn't do it on my own. I pulled out some old Braille notes, but they were "Braille to me." I remembered the convention and thought, "What if I would have gone to one of those meetings?" ... what if...

Then, in June 2005, I went online and saw that in two weeks there would be a convention in Louisville. I thought I wouldn't find a good airfare, but for $191 I got a round-trip ticket. I couldn't find an excuse yet, so I checked and they had rooms.

First, I e-mailed Virgil and said I was coming to Louisville. That was basically all I said, because I had kept in touch with him once in a while. He sent an e-mail back saying I was the last person in the world he would ever expect to see in Louisville. I gathered up all my stuff, but at 11:30 that night, I still hadn't put it in my suitcase. But I told myself, for $250, don't sign up for something you can't do. So I packed and went down there, and the first thing I did was call Virgil.

When I showed up in the meeting room, he handed me an agenda—he had it in large print and Braille, since he didn't know what I would use. Then he told me that there were certain breakouts and meetings that I had to attend and sure enough I felt he was serious. We scouted out the whole place, and he introduced me to someone named Peggy Elliott [who is national second vice-president, president of the NFB of Iowa, and chairman of the national scholarship committee].

It seemed like she had all the time in the world on her hands, and took me aside for a couple of hours to talk to me about confidence, telling me I could do it. I thought it was a lecture for awhile, but I got pretty comfortable talking, and we had a beer. She kept leading me around. I met Doug Elliott, Michael Seay, and a few other people.

We ran into Eddie Bell, and he was sitting at a table with me having a beer. He had a question about math, and I said, "Math's easy! I used to tutor it." I ran through the problem quick, and followed through as I folded napkins in geometric shapes and put a glass around them showing the points touching the circumference. The next day, at a seminar, there was Dr. Eddie Bell, up there giving a speech, and I'm thinking, "Oh no, what did I say?"

I toured around, and I got around all right, but it was confusing at times. I ran into some students from the Louisiana Center for the Blind. I started talking to them, and they asked everything about me. When they found out I didn't have a cane with me—well, maybe I shouldn't have told them—but they were all over that. We closed down the place we were at and had a great time. Some people wake up in the morning with a tattoo. I woke up with a cane and sleep shades.

Actually, I got a call at 7:30 the next morning, and they hopped up to my room all giddy, and they took me down to get the cane and sleep shades. They had a little travel route for me to do and everything. I had been wondering why we Brailled the back of a chair the night before with dymotape. Well, I had to go find it. They said they'd be close by, and they gave me a few pointers and off I went. After a while, I found it, but before I did, does anyone remember that piano that was there, the one playing in the atrium? I ran into this thing, felt it a little, and figured out it was the piano. I had been cussing at that piano the night before. I did find the chair, and sat down and listened for about a half hour, and it was really interesting to hear all the commotion and noise around me.

Then the general session started, and I went and met up with the Minnesota group. Back when I was going to MCTC, my roommate had these e-mails that came across with JAWS—"Kathy McGillivray"—"Jennifer Dunnam"—I heard these names all the time on the e-mails coming in. Years went by, and now I'm down there, and I expected these two old ladies! Needless to say, when I sat down and met Kathy, I realized she's not an old lady! Then Jennifer came up and I met her—she wasn't an old lady either. She took five dollars from me for membership, since I said I would join. Then I met Shawn Mayo, who introduced me to Al, Zach, and Greg, Steve Jacobson, and a bunch of other people. I went to a sleep shade dinner, carried my cane, and we had fun.

All the way through the whole convention, Virgil kept saying, "You've got to go to BLIND Inc." I just said no, I just needed some confidence was all and I'd be OK.

When I got back from the convention, I called my counselor at SSB, and she told me that I should just close the account and call the Lions. I don't think she heard me too well. I called the supervisor, who offered me a new counselor. I called him right away on my cell phone, because he was to get my folder the next day. He said he would get back to me when he got the folder. I called Monday morning and was told he wasn't in the office and he'd call me later. I called again that afternoon, and he said I was on his list and what did I want. He made an appointment for me about three weeks out, and I got off the phone. But then I thought, "I don't have three weeks! School is starting, and I have to figure out what I'm going to do!" I called back and said it wouldn't work. He told me he hadn't looked at my folder yet, so I asked him to read the cover letter I had written. I had advocated for myself, putting in there what I needed from State Services for the Blind. He said he would give Shawn Mayo a call. He called me back, and I started at BLIND Incorporated a week later.

Now the sleep shades came. I knew I wanted them, but it was interesting. After I got acclimated to them, they introduced me to all that white noise that you always hear. It became like the palate that I would paint the canvas of the life around me. I know there's more white-white noise, so I'm starting to weed that out, but it's educational every step of the way.

Then I attended the chapter meetings. My first one was interesting, and I went out to dinner—I'm finding out that everything follows with a dinner. I started looking around the table, hearing different people talking, and I thought, "What group is this?" I kept coming back to the meetings and doing events with other people. I started putting the puzzle together, like each little piece, each person there; when it all comes together it's a bigger picture and is more stable than just one piece all alone. Looking at it and learning the history, you start to know more about each person and what their heart is and what they've done in their past. Not everyone can take gates off the blind home, but one of us (Joyce Scanlan) did.

I put all of that together, then here I come along in my walk of life and I'm able to come this far. I was able to go to BLIND, which some of you have fought for and dreamed of having but may not have had the opportunity to have, but the students there have now. Even in life itself for us not to be custodialized or anything, I thank all of you who have fought for the rights of the blind, because we are benefiting from it. I hope I can put in my two cents and fight for the people coming up behind us.