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| Standing in front of her dorm. She is living in the second floor on the opposite side from where she is currently standing. |
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| Saying goodbye to her cat. |
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| Look at her go. We are all SO proud of her. |
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| This separation is terribly hard on both of my girls who are the very best of friends. |
On Thursday, August 10, 2023, we dropped Sarah off at her college dorm for her to begin her first semester as an honors student at the University of North Carolina - Greensboro campus. She is living one hour and forty-five minutes from home. (I am not gonna lie a part of me wants to wrap her up in bubble-wrap and protect her from the world since we are too far away to help her ourselves.)
Sarah has worked her ass off to get to this point. She spent the last 18+ months taking Orientation and Mobility lessons from an amazing teacher here in the Charlotte area. (O & M teaches visually impaired persons how to navigate in this world independently.) She applied for, and was approved (after a rigorous application process) for a seeing eye dog - which she will be getting either this winter break or next summer. (It is a looonnnggg process.)
She has worked hard getting the various agencies to help her in the ways she needed help (which was surprisingly difficult to do) until she found the people who could do so. (I would not recommend NC as a state to live in if you have any type of medical needs/services.) She garnered services for the technology she needs for college, an O & M teacher specifically designed to teach her how to navigate the campus prior to each semester starting (this is a different service from the private O&M instructor we hired for her to learn to navigate in the world), among other things.
Sarah is living in the honor dorms with her roommate Na’vaeh. The roommates seem to have good vibes thus far. Luckily, Na’vaeh has a relative who is visually impaired and has some experience with some of Sarah’s needs. We were all happy to learn that Sarah’s blindness didn’t scare Na’vaeh off like it did another roommate who moved out of Sarah’s room after finding out she was blind. (She initially told Sarah that the school moved her, but now that Sarah has moved in I don’t believe that story. It was mighty coincidental that she gave no reason for the school moving her out and that it conveniently happened after the girl found out Sarah was blind.)
To say that I am proud of Sarah would be a grand understatement. She is such a warrior, and I am in awe of what she has accomplished in her life to this point.
I have spoken with her multiple times each day she has been gone. She has experienced both ups and downs as to be expected for any incoming freshman who has never been away from home for too long. On top of navigating all of the normal day-to-day issues every new college student goes through she is also dealing with blind people issues both social and physical. She is mentally, physically, and emotionally exhausted each day, but I am hopeful that as she gets used to the rigors of college life this exhaustion will subside and just become a part of her normal life.
Her first classes begin tomorrow (Tuesday). She is a psychology major who is planning on getting her Masters degree right away after getting her bachelor’s degree. She wants to help veterans, abused women, and children like her through equine assisted therapy. I have no doubt she will be an excellent counselor.
The house is much quieter now without her here - which quite surprising because we have a quiet house to begin with. It was weird watching our first movie together after she left and not needing descriptive audio. It is also weird to be able to leave stuff out and not have to worry about her running into it.
I do miss her. Her sister misses her even more. But…I am also so excited for Sarah. I know that college life is going to be hard, and that she will have many ups and downs, but I also know that she will thrive. She will find a way to live the life she has always wanted to despite her disease.
She has spread her wings. I am going to love watching her fly.
