When I read about this task I tried to make a list of what I normally do when I’m not at school and, honestly, it was a very short list, so I knew coming up with something was going to be difficult. I thought about it for a few days and it finally hit me (in the middle of my Chemistry final at school) that instead of doing one thing that I normally do, I should do them all.
So I started a new list-
“On a Saturday morning I regularly”:
-Wake up
-Take a shower
-Get dressed
-Eat breakfast
-Do my chores (empty the dishwasher, clean the cat box, and tidy up my room)
-Go to Bittersweet (a coffee shop about a mile away)
-Sit on the couch and watch House
-(And sometimes) take my younger sisters to the little park right next to our house.

I’ve never heard of somebody willingly blindfolding themselves throughout the day while completing the tasks that they normally do with sight, so that’s exactly what I did.

Last night I got my camera, notebook, and blindfold ready. I asked my 10-year-old sister, Annie, to spend the day with me taking pictures and making sure I don’t do any permanent damage to others or myself.

As soon as I woke up this morning I made sure to keep my eyes closed and grabbed the blindfold off of my bedside table. Annie was persistent in trying to help me, almost like I was actually crippled and she felt bad. I was amazed by how easily I became annoyed by her doing something as simply as grabbing my hand when she thought I was reaching out for someone instead of just to avoid hitting my face on a wall. I became frustrated after the 3rd or 4th time she did it and snapped at her. Shocked by my over reaction, I quickly apologized and tried to explain to her what it felt like not to be able to see so that she might understand my position a bit more. She just said that she didn’t understand, but she wasn’t mad, and thought that maybe, if she could read what I would write in my notebook, she would get it. Personally, I think she just wanted to see if I was going to write about her or not, but of course I agreed.

I decided to go out of order and, after waking up, I had breakfast then took a shower, and finally got dressed. I’m very easily scared so I knew that if I wasn’t wearing the blindfold I would end up opening my eyes if someone snuck up on me or got too close. The shower wasn’t tricky without the blindfold, but getting out was- I was quite afraid of tripping or stumbling and I feared I was going to open my eyes and ruin it, but all went well and I put my blindfold back on and got dressed with ease.

Sitting on the couch while my parents yelled at me for “being stupid”, “doing ridiculous things”, and “making their lives difficult” because I was participating in "some weird site-thing", I began writing my thoughts down in my notebook. Obviously it’s pretty illegible since I had to take a guess at where to write because I couldn’t see the paper. I noticed immediately that, because my mind was trying to form a picture of my surroundings by using my sounds and memories, I couldn’t focus on writing at all. As soon as someone said something I immediately forgot what I previously wrote and my undivided attention went to them, however, not so much what they were saying as what they might look like right then.

I told my parents that I would do my chores and then leave and my mother’s response was, “Oh no you don’t- you’re not breaking any of my dishes because of your stupid stunts” and my dad said, “I don’t feel like having you ‘clean’ just so that I can clean twice as much later because you’re going to make a mess”. (So thank you SF0, you got me out of my chores for the day!) I had been planning on taking both Annie and Shelby, my 3 year old sister, to the park this morning, but after understanding how impaired I really was without my vision I opted out of taking charge of Shelby solely because I didn’t want anything happening to her. That, and she was very weary of me to begin with since she’s never seen someone with a blindfold on before, and when she asked me to take it off and I told her that I couldn’t, she refused to have anything to do with me.

So Annie and I began our journey to the park where I attempted to not kill myself on the play structure. Then we continued on our walk to Bittersweet. Normally we ride our bikes because it only takes 5 minutes that way, but its kind of common sense not to ride a bike blindfolded, so we walked, and normally it would take about 20 to 25 minutes but it took us nearly an hour because my depth perception was gone and I couldn’t figure out how to walk in a straight line (Haha).

Once there we sat inside on the couches and had hot chocolates (which Annie ordered because I was afraid I would break something if I tried to maneuver through the store).

From there we walked over to Navlet’s Garden Center, to which I am an ex-employee, and hung out with the friends I have that still work there Doug had the most fun making a game out of it by bringing every odd object he could think of over to have it sit just close enough to me so that I could tell something was there, but didn’t know what it was.
Jessica was supportive even though she didn’t understand SF0 at all.

Patrick, who is an oblivious teenager, thought I was crazy but said next time I had to tell him my plans so he could join in the fun and participate too (possibly recruited a new member??).
Jane laughed and gave me a huge hug, telling me she loved the wild things I do. Jesse had the most fun trying to prove that I was lying and could actually see through the blindfold, but failed because I couldn’t.

I noticed around this time that I was starting to get a really bad headache, which I thought was odd because I don’t normally get headaches. I also realized that, when unable to see, I wasn’t as self conscious as I normally am. I found this to be an amazing discovery because I figured that my over active imagination would give me the awful feelings of embarrassment, but instead I could hear the smiles in peoples voices and it made me feel wonderful, even if they were laughing at me instead of with me. After saying our goodbyes, Annie and I headed back to Bittersweet, but ended up leaving shortly thereafter. We walked home on the same path, but with less difficulty since I’d become more accustomed to walking without sight.

We ended up back at the park because it was on the way home, and I decided to actually swing this time. It was a terrible decision, one that I quickly regretted after 10 seconds of swinging gave me the worst motion sickness I’ve ever had. Annie took the fact that I promptly fell off the swing that something was and took it as the cue to lead me home. Once inside I made her lunch. Nothing too elaborate- a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and a glass of milk.

At this point I decided that it was time to remove my blindfold. Not only was everything extremely bright but also I quickly became lightheaded and had to sit down. All in all it was a successful day and I didn’t break anything or cause harm to anyone, something that I am very proud of!