Overcoming embarrassment

For me, there is somewhat of a fine line between overcoming embarrassment and allowing myself to shrink into the background. What am I talking about today? It’ is all about overcoming my embarrassment enough to ask for help.

When I was growing up, it was a very acute problem with me. Rather than ask for help as a blind child, I preferred to suffer through it all. I would bump into things, lose my way at times, and spend so much time trying to figure how things worked. All because I was too shy and too embarrassed to ask for help.

This changed somewhat as I grew older and left home. I learned to ask for help and I also learned that people were only too willing to help me out. When I gained some functional vision, I continued my efforts to be more outgoing and not be afraid to ask for help. If I bumped into something I took it with a grain of salt, and if I lost my way then that was okay.

Now that I have precious little vision, I continue to work on overcoming my embarrassment. People are only too willing to help if you give them the chance. Of course, there will be times when someone may not be too willing to help either because they are busy or preoccupied or whatever else. All in the life of a blind person.

I’m Donna J. Jodhan your friendly accessibility advocate wishing you a terrific day and inviting you to go out there and share my blogs with others. Visit www.perkins.org to see how blind kids and adults are trained to overcome embarrassment.