[nfbmi-talk] this is a nice story for a change

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Blind Rockford graduate lives life to the fullest

 

May 26, 2011

 

5/25/2011 5:53:00 PM

 

 

17-year-old Jordyn Castor shows off her award at last year’s National Braille Challenge in Los Angeles. Castor, who is new to Rockford but will graduate

with the class of 2011, will compete for her fifth and final time in this national competition for the blind in June.

 

Jordyn Castor has her T-shirt signed by West Michigan Whitecaps player Billy Nowlin at an event for blind and visually impaired children Saturday.

Blind Rockford graduate lives life to the fullest

 

By Danielle Arndt

 

If there is one thing Rockford High School senior Jordyn Castor is not, it's timid.

 

One thing Castor is: blind. But a lack of sight has never stopped this traveling, competitive, ambitious, athletic, outgoing 17 year old.

 

"She's fearless - almost on the boarder of it being scary," said Castor's mom, Kim Compston-Thebo, with a chuckle.

 

A choice

 

When Compston-Thebo was 25 weeks pregnant with Castor, her doctors discovered she had an incompetent cervix.

 

Doctors explained that as a result, Castor likely would be born blue and not make a sound like other babies. They also said she had a high risk of brain

damage and cerebral palsy. So they gave Compston-Thebo a choice - when Castor was born, they could either do nothing or everything possible to save her.

 

"I told them, 'You take whatever measures necessary to keep her here,'" Compston-Thebo said. "But when she came out she was red and screaming, so we knew

she was a keeper."

 

At 15 weeks premature, Castor was born 1 pound, 9 ounces. She underwent open heart surgery almost immediately and doctors said stitching her skin was like

cutting melted butter, Compston-Thebo recalled.

 

Castor's eyes were severely underdeveloped in size and she was born with her retinas detached. In the following weeks, she had nine surgeries in an attempt

to reattach her retinas, but the surgeries were unsuccessful and Castor now wears artificial eyes.

 

On the move

 

Castor is new to Rockford High School this year. She, her mother and two younger siblings moved to the area after Castor completed her junior year at East

Kentwood Public Schools in the spring of 2010.

 

While moving to a new district for the final year of high school may be intimidating to some, it was a welcome challenge for Castor.

 

"It hasn't been bad at all," she said of the change. "It's been fun and it's good preparation for a college situation where you are forced to meet new people

and find your way around a new building."

 

Because she's blind, Castor is often the one to make the first move.

 

"Meeting new friends in general is more difficult when your blind. People are usually intimidated and don't know what to say or how to act, so I usually

have to initiate the conversations," Castor explained.

 

Which is OK by this bubbly senior, who said she tries hard not to judge people because she "knows all too well what it feels like" and never passes up an

opportunity to make a new friend.

 

Daring for independence

 

Likewise, Castor never bypasses the opportunity to attempt a new feat, especially if it means she can be active.

 

At East Kentwood High School, Castor was a three-year member of the varsity track and field team, competing in the discus event and the 100-meter dash.

She also downhill skis.

 

Both running and skiing require Castor to have a guide, or someone who participates alongside her. But primarily, Castor is a master at using echo location.

 

"She's great to have in haunted houses where things are popping out at you or hiding around corners," Compston-Thebo said. "If we are ever trapped in a

burning building, she'd be the one to lead us out."

 

Daring is a word Compston-Thebo often uses to describe her daughter.

 

During a cruise the family took to the Bahamas for spring break, Castor plunged 100 feet into the ocean in a vertical tube surrounded by sharks. The water

slide attraction was called "A Leap of Faith."

 

"It was funny because I could hear the guys on their radios saying a blind girl was trying to go down," Compston-Thebo said.

 

"People asked what I was doing," Castor said with a grin. "I was like, 'What does it look like I'm doing?'"

 

Castor said she hates being told she's incapable of doing something simply because she's blind.

 

"That's the absolute worst thing for me. And I'm likely to go out of my way to prove them wrong," she said. "They way I look at it, what I do as a blind

person affects how someone views the next blind person they meet. That's why awareness is one of the most important things."

 

Castor has rock climbed a 76-foot cliff in Colorado, been whitewater rafting and recently was selected as Most Valuable Player of a goalball program she

participated in through Western Michigan University.

 

Goalball is a Paralympic sport, designed for blind or visually impaired athletes in which teams of three compete against each another. The premise involves

trying to throw a ball that has bells embedded into it in the other team's goal.

 

Castor not only is an excellent goalballer, but she also volunteered to help teach younger students to play at the 10th annual V.I. Sports and Activities

Day Saturday in East Grand Rapids.

 

Striving to achieve

 

Castor has traveled around the country for a variety of activities - navigating her way through airports as well as boarding planes, buses and taxis on

her own.

 

"It's the practical way we have to live," she said. "We have to be able to adapt to new surroundings. I'm not the type to sit back and be helpless in life.

I'm going to advocate for myself."

 

Compston-Thebo said Castor's independence combined with her blindness was never worrisome.

 

"Because Jordyn was my first, she was my normal one - I didn't know any different," Compston-Thebo said. "For me, a seeing second child was weird. But Jordyn

did all the normal things the other kids did because that's just how she was. She would ride down the sidewalk on her bike by herself."

 

In addition to gearing up for graduation June 7, Castor is dedicating much of her time and energy to prepare for the National Braille Challenge, also in

June, in Los Angeles.

 

This will be the fifth year Castor has qualified for the competition. Qualification is based on students' scores in preliminary regional contests.

 

Only the top 12 students in the country in each age category are invited to compete.

 

Because she is a senior, it also will be Castor's final National Braille Challenge. She has placed as well as second in her age group but is aiming for

first place this summer.

 

"The competition was designed to motivate children to keep up with their Braille skills," Castor explained. "Today, help technology is so advanced that

promoting literacy is is important. (National Braille Challenge) is the only national academic competition for blind students.

 

"The kids there are so smart," she continued. "Some speak multiple foreign languages, play multiple instruments. But many are at my same intellectual level,

so I have made some really great friends for life through the competitions."

 

The National Braille Challenge scores students' performances in a variety of academic areas. The most nerve wracking, requiring the most concentration,

is the typing challenge, during which contestants are graded both on speed and accuracy. There also is a portion for interpreting Braille charts and graphs

that Castor said can be difficult.

 

"I'll probably be pretty emotional when it's over," Castor said of her final challenge. "It's such a cool competition. There's nothing like it."

 

Tech savvy

 

Despite her belief in Braille literacy, after graduation Castor plans to attend Michigan State University to study computer sciences and engineering.

 

A techie at heart, Castor is excited about her graduation present from her mother, an iPhone 5. Compston-Thebo said her daughter already is the family's

computer genius and often fields calls from relatives asking for help.

 

Castor said she got her first computer when she was in second grade.

 

"When I learned it could talk to me, I went to town," she said. "I taught myself everything I possibly could about computers and in 2007, I wrote my own

program that could check the weather, search the news and look up definitions."

 

Her future goals include designing more sophisticated software to aid the blind and visually impaired.

 

As for her deficiency, it has proved to be anything but deficient for Castor. In fact, she believes being blind is a blessing.

 

"I have had lots of cool opportunities and meet some extraordinary people," she said.

 

For example, Castor was featured in a documentary by Keith Famie called "Do you see how I see?"

 

Compston-Thebo said Famie met Castor while filming during a summer program at Greenville's Camp Tuhsmeheta, a camp for blind a visually impaired children

ages 8 to 18, and fell in love with Castor's story and her "live-to-the-fullest" outlook.

 

The documentary premiered in Birmingham, Mich., Jan. 29.

http://www.rockfordindependent.com/main.asp?SectionID=11&SubSectionID=11&ArticleID=3822