[Blindtlk] Question

[Kasondra Payne]

Lindsay,

I can so relate to what you are feeling.  The powers that be didn't start
teaching me about a cane until I was in second grade.  They didn't give me a
cane to keep until I was in the fourth grade.  Already the wrong message was
being sent.  Trust me I am fixing that with my own kids.  When I was in
junior high, I felt much as you do.   Didn't like to "stick out", so I hid
that cane away as much as possible.  I folded it up and stuck it in my
already full locker hen I went to lunch.  I began to realize that I really
needed it, but that didn't happen until I had some great mishaps that I have
tried to block out of  my memory.  My parents said they wanted me to use my
cane, but they didn't present it to me positively.  They told me that I just
needed it, and they didn't really explain how it would help me to be more
confident.  It also didn't help that I had a short cane that got stuck in
every hole.  

I found the NFB between my junior and senior years of high school.  The day
of my first chapter meeting a friend put a 57-inch cane in my hand.  I
walked so much faster.  I loved it.  It really helped that I had role models
who weren't much older than I was teaching me.  I went to my first
convention, and I ran all over the place.  I met other blind teenagers who
used canes and weren't ashamed of their blindness.  My parents had wanted me
to feel that way, but they just didn't know how to get me to that point.  

I came back to school, and I ran all over campus with my log cane.  My high
school was open with several wings of classrooms that all faced the outside.
I was the Assistant that year for the Student Activities Director.  I ran
errands for him as part of my student council duties.  He often send me to
the park next door because they had a fax machine and the school didn't.
When he didn't need me, he sent me to the attendance office to run passes to
people.  I stacked the passes according to room numbers, and I used my cane
as I ran all over campus delivering the passes.  I wouldn't have been able
to do that effectively without using my cane.

Now I am a mother busy with my three children.  My younger two children are
also blind, and they are learning what the cane can do for them.  I am also
preparing to go back to school to study for a degree in English with a
teaching emphasis.  I will get around my university using my cane, and it
will all work out, even in the snow.  Thanks for letting me tell you the
reasons why I think using a cane is so important.  

Kasondra Payne

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