"From Why me? To Why NOT me?"

Hadley

My Why Me Turned Into Why Not Me

Presented by Douglas Walker

Douglas: Hello, and welcome to the Insights and Sound Bites podcast, where people facing vision loss share insights about what has helped them cope and adjust.

Voice 1: You cannot do this alone. You need people who are experiencing the same thing.

Voice 2: Probably the hardest part was just navigating through the emotions of it.

Douglas: My name is Douglas Walker. It’s normal to feel angry, isolated and depressed when faced with a life altering event. Today we’ll hear from Saras. Saras will share with us how leaning into her core strengths of confidence and faith gave her the courage to move forward.

Saras: Good afternoon. My name is Saraswati Reddy. I'm calling from Millbury, Massachusetts.

In the beginning, I was kind of very upset naturally to hear that I was diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa.

The anger, the depression, the agitation I went through, the frustration. To be honest with you, sometimes I do feel difficulty in doing certain things, certain tasks, and I live alone because I lost my husband three and a half years ago. And, I guess it's a natural thing for everybody. We are all human, and you say, why me? But then, I seem to hear this little voice saying, why not you?

You have the confidence and faith. It gives me the courage to keep going and then I look up and say, okay, I know I'm blind, but I look forward and upward with hope and forward to keep going.

Douglas: Was there something that someone said to you or something that happened along the way that made all the difference in the world in helping you adjust to living with vision loss?

We‘d love to hear from you if you’d like to share with us, just leave us a message on our Insights & Sound Bites voicemail by calling, 847-512-4867. Or, you can use your smartphone or computer and email us a recording to podcast@Hadley.edu. Again, my name is Douglas Walker. Take care and I’ll see you next time.