[nabs-l] A Question for the College Students

[Kaiti Shelton]

Hi, Chris,

I would say that one thing I definitely wish that I had a better
handle on before going to college was cooking.  It didn't matter so
much my freshman year when I had a meal plan and only a microwave in
my dorm, but once I got a kitchen my sophomore year, I was pretty
dependent on my sighted roommates for most dinners beyond a sandwitch,
soup, etc until I learned how to use a stove.  I'm thankful that I can
cook now, but I wish that I didn't have to learn through trial and
error on my own as much as I did.

Also, I wish that I would have been more prepared for the culture
shock of being the one blind person, who people could easily take
advantage of.  I don't know if this is something I could have
necessarily prepared for, or that you could even prepare for, but it
was difficult for me to adjust to that.  Most people were very nice
and treated me normally, offered help but were still okay when I
politely declined, invited me to go places, etc.  I had a really
awkward and bad roommate situation my first semester which resulted
from my roommate thinking she could get away with anything because I
wouldn't see it.  I wasn't sheltered by my family or anything, but I
was fortunate enough to never have to deal with bullying beyond what
my sighted classmates got from time to time as a kid, and no one had
really tried to take advantage of me like that before.  I'm not trying
to scare you, and like I said 99.999% of people were really cool and
nice to me, but it was just something I was more naïve about than I
wish I had been.

I agree with Justin.  I was lucky enough to be set on my career from
sophomore year of high school on, but career explanation at the least
confirmed this for me, while letting me see if I'd like other fields.
I'd recommend doing what you can to settle on a major that you'll
stick with through undergrad; don't be ashamed of switching if that
situation comes, but depending on what you want to switch from and
what you want to switch to, it may or may not add some time on to your
schooling if it happens.  You also don't necessarily want to be the
kid that switches a bunch, not just for the money and time but also
for your own sanity.  I have a friend who started as music ed,
switched to early childhood ed because she thought she didn't like
teaching music after the first year, only stayed in that degree for a
semester because she decided teaching itself was what she didn't
really like, and is now finally settled on pre-med.  She loves her
major now, but she's added an extra year onto her program because it
took her so long to find what she wanted to do, and was really
stressed about her career choices until she got to this point.
College is stressful enough at times when you do feel like you're in
the right program.

Hope this helps.

On 11/18/14, justin williams via nabs-l <nabs-l at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> Career exploration. Make sure you do that.   Wish I would have had
> guidance.
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: nabs-l [mailto:nabs-l-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Chris Nusbaum
> via nabs-l
> Sent: Tuesday, November 18, 2014 7:22 PM
> To: National Association of Blind Students mailing list
> Subject: [nabs-l] A Question for the College Students
>
> Hey Fellow NABSters,
>
> As many of you know, I am currently a junior in high school who is
> beginning
> my college search and the long journey of preparation for this transition.
> I
> have an IEP meeting coming up and I'm trying to come up with appropriate
> goals for me in the coming year. At this time in my life, I would like some
> input from those of you who are currently in college. If there is one key
> skill which you wish you would have learned in high school and needed for
> college, what would it be? I'm trying to be as proactive as possible in
> preparing for college and setting the goals which will best help me do so,
> and the experiences of current college students would be a great help to
> me.
> Thank you in advance for your advice and perspective. I look forward to
> hearing from you soon.
>
> Chris Nusbaum, Vice President
> Maryland Association of Blind Students
> Coordinator of Social Media, National Federation of the Blind of Maryland
> Twitter: @Chrisn98, @MDMDABS, and @NFBMD
>
> "The National Federation of the Blind knows that blindness is not the
> characteristic that defines you or your future. Every day we raise the
> expectations of blind people,  because low expectations create obstacles
> between blind people and our dreams. You can live the life you want;
> blindness need not hold you back." -National Federation of the Blind One
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-- 
Kaiti