[nabs-l] Feeling Inadequate After National Convention?

Sun Jul 13 18:31:50 UTC 2014

Hey Elizabeth,
I really appreciate your courage and openness in starting this thread.
I am really new within this organization, but simply from attending
convention I can understand how seeing leaders or members within the
blind community with such incredible levels of talent or with a life
which we deem highly successful can serve to raise personal feelings
of frustration or inadequacy instead of inspiring us.
I don't necessarily think I have exactly the same problems as you.
However, I certainly have other issues then blindness including fairly
major food intolerances and some difficult but more circumstantial
issues. Obviously, this list isn't really the proper arena to discuss
all our personal issues in detail, but my point is this:
We all have stories, and, while blindness may not define us, it is
part of a long list of traits and circumstances and thoughts which
really do, although we certainly define them as well. It is easy for
us to draw up lists of very real issues with which we are struggling
and compare them with the shorter list which our friends or
acquaintances seem to have. Believe me, I've done it a lot! However,
this often isolates us and estranges us from the communities which
could most empower us. It is very easy to set up the leaders in this
organization as measuring sticks by which we belittle ourselves, and
our accomplishments, and our future, when instead they could serve as
wonderful resources as we chase our dreams! I hope all of this makes
sense and doesn't sound obnoxiously like I have my life together… I
definitely don't!
As for living the life you want despite multiple disabilities or
issues ontop of blindness, I have a close and trusted friend who I
believe has experienced many of the same life issues and with whom I
have had many similar conversations. I think she would make a great
resource as well as sounding board. I would love to get her in contact
with you if you are interested. I have already discussed this thread
with her and asked if she would let me share her contact info with
you, if you were interested. Shoot me an email if you have any
questions for me or are interested in getting in touch with my friend.
My email is:
becsjoynfb at gmail.com
Again, good job on speaking up :-)
Rebecca –

"The drop of rain maketh a hole in the stone, not by violence, but by
oft falling."
-Hugh Latimer

> On 13/07/2014, at 12:57, Carly Mihalakis via nabs-l <nabs-l at nfbnet.org> wrote:
>
> Good morning, Elizabeth,
>
>        Like RJ, I am not a member of the Federation although I try to see it in terms of the context of the times in which it was conceived, to honor doctors TenBroeks and, later Dr. Maur's gifting blind cohesion and organization.Personally, I became brain damaged 10 years ago, so  I guess I am multipli handicapped, too.
> for today, Car
>
>
>> Dear
>> Elizabeth, I myself am not a member of the NFB, and like you, I to have a secondary disability. I have CP. If you wish, you may email me off list at:
>> joltingjacksandefur at gmail.com
>> Or you may add me to skype at:
>> smallistbaby1979
>> RJ
>> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Elizabeth Mohnke via nabs-l" <nabs-l at nfbnet.org>
>> To: "'Carly Mihalakis'" <carlymih at comcast.net>; "'National Association of Blind Students mailing list'" <nabs-l at nfbnet.org>
>> Sent: Sunday, July 13, 2014 12:28 PM
>> Subject: Re: [nabs-l] Feeling Inadequate After National Convention?
>>
>>
>>> Hello Carly,
>>>
>>> I am honestly not quite sure how my post about feeling defeated and
>>> inadequate turned into a thread about not being able to become a blind
>>> parent. My post had absolutely nothing to do with this. The last time I
>>> checked, this was an email list for blind students and not blind parents. As
>>> I look around this organization, all I seem to see are leaders who have been
>>> successful at being a college student. They are either succeeding in their
>>> classes, are successful college graduates, or have pursued the career of
>>> their choice. This makes me feel inadequate because there is the possibility
>>> none of these things will ever happened to me in my own life. And I guess
>>> learning to embrace this possibility in my life is rather difficult for me.
>>>
>>> Warm regards,
>>> Elizabeth
>>>
>>>
>>> -----Original Message-----
>>> From: nabs-l [mailto:nabs-l-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Carly Mihalakis
>>> via nabs-l
>>> Sent: Sunday, July 13, 2014 10:13 AM
>>> To: tyler at tysdomain.com; National Association of Blind Students mailing
>>> list; Beth Taurasi; National Association of Blind Students mailing list
>>> Subject: Re: [nabs-l] Feeling Inadequate After National Convention?
>>>
>>> Good morning, Elizabeth,
>>>
>>> Personally, I was bienucleated (had both ocular organs surgically
>>> removed) after having retinal blastoma as an infant. And, I have come into a
>>> realization that,  without so much as a shaddow of a doubt, I want no part
>>> of synthetic means of artificially tweeking with nature, such that I, too,
>>> can proliferate this genetic cespool of mine, just so someone with genes ill
>>> fit for proliferation, can conceive of  and then carry to term their own
>>> kid! Personally, I think I have come to realize that, the universe doesn't
>>> mean for me to prolifferate my genetics and I accept this. For, the world
>>> seems to becoming strange, beyond my wildest dreams and seems not to be a
>>> welcoming place for any creature, let alone a fruit of my corrupt loins.
>>> Just some meditation on the question for people to take, or leave, as they
>>> see fit.
>>> for today, Car
>>>
>>>
>>> perportion and made the thread all about you, again. I don't think that was
>>> the point, just that the speeches and people doing so much makes people feel
>>> like they're not doing enough, or as much as they could. How much one can
>>> actually accomplish is up to someone, and only -you- know if you've not done
>>> enough.
>>>>> On 7/12/2014 8:25 PM, Beth Taurasi via nabs-l wrote:
>>>>> I feel the same way as you, Liz.  I have some other disabling factors
>>>>> due to parental misconnduct or psychological abuse and I was devalued
>>>>> at home, at school, and in some work settings in Florida and Colorado.
>>>>> It's easy for the NFB people to feel like blindness is the only
>>>>> people's disabling factor they can serve, but they fail to recognize
>>>>> that mental illnesses, chronic health issues due to abuse, and so on
>>>>> also play a huge role in how the people act, interact, and so on.  I'm
>>>>> worried as heck about my own future because the NFB says a lot about
>>>>> blind parents, but whuat about multidisabled intelligent beings who
>>>>> want to bring children in to this world?  80% of psychiatrically ill
>>>>> mothers have their babies removed from her. s Anyone heard of Buck V.
>>>>> Bell?  Carrie Buck had her kid removed from her all because she was
>>>>> epileptic and even though she was not blind, a disability was present
>>>>> anyway.  Then, she was sterilized.  I will not tolerate such actions
>>>>> to be taken against me or any person with or without multiple
>>>>> disabilities.
>>>>> I side with you on this,
>>>>> Beth
>>>>>
>>>>> ----- Original Message -----
>>>>> From: Elizabeth Mohnke via nabs-l <nabs-l at nfbnet.org
>>>>> To: "'National Association of Blind Students mailing list'"
>>>>> <nabs-l at nfbnet.org
>>>>> Date sent: Sat, 12 Jul 2014 17:29:51 -0400
>>>>> Subject: [nabs-l] Feeling Inadequate After National Convention?
>>>>>
>>>>> Hello All,
>>>>>
>>>>> I hope everyone who attended the national convention this year had a
>>>>> great time in Orlando. I understand attending a national convention
>>>>> can be a rather inspiring event in the life of someone who is blind.
>>>>> However, as I was listening to the online stream of the national
>>>>> convention this year, I found myself feeling the complete opposite.
>>>>>
>>>>> Instead of feeling inspired and hopeful for the future, I found myself
>>>>> feeling rather defeated and inadequate. As I was listening to the
>>>>> speaches from various leaders within the NFB, I found myself thinking
>>>>> how lucky they must be that the only disability they have to deal with
>>>>> in their lives was there blindness. I was thinking about how easy it
>>>>> must be fore someone who is only blind, and how more difficult it is
>>>>> for someone who has another disability in addition to being blind.
>>>>>
>>>>> Now perhaps this may be a bit too personal to post to the email list,
>>>>> but I was just curious if anyone else has ever felt this way, and if
>>>>> so, what did you do to deal with these kinds of feelings? I would
>>>>> greatly appreciate hearing from anyone who has ever dealt with this kind
>>> of issue before.
>>>>>
>>>>> Thanks,
>>>>> Elizabeth
>>>>>
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>>>>
>>>>
>>>> --
>>>> Take care,
>>>> Ty
>>>> http://tds-solutions.net
>>>> He that will not reason is a bigot; he that cannot reason is a fool; he
>>>> that dares not reason is a slave.
>>>>
>>>>
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>>
>>
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