"Ouch, that was a tree!"

I decided to go the library, which is 30 minutes away, and back again while being completely blind. Not blind in the comfort of my home, but outside to make it more challenging and interesting. I used a pair of my mom’s nylon socks to cover my eyes and a pair of my sister’s sunglasses to cover the socks, so I wouldn’t attract that much attention. 

My sister and brother trudged along to make sure I didn’t die a horrible death without being able to see, what actually caused it. Or they just wanted to mock me – I don’t know. But I was really grateful for their help and I don’t think I would’ve come home alive if I didn’t have them to scream in my ear every time I was about to bump into something or to calm me down when I thought we were standing in the middle of the road with a car driving right towards us.
Since I couldn’t hear anything I had to rely on my other senses, especially my hearing sense, the sounds seemed a lot louder, as if my hearing suddenly had turned super-sensitive. I found that sounds I usually blocked out became prominent and more important, as I used them to orient me.

It was of course completely dark without my sight. It felt like I was a shell full of darkness, where my thoughts floated around and only sounds were able to penetrate the shell. I felt oddly alone and on my own, which scared me. On the way to the library I had a very hard time going in the right direction and trying not to be afraid of any possible threats, which was why I walked extremely slow.

When I reached the library, it dawned on me that I wouldn’t be able to look at interesting books and read a bit. Reading is such a big part of my life, that I can’t imagine not having the opportunity to read. Of course there are braille books, but not every book gets translated to braille.

When I finally had to take the blindfold and the pair of sunglasses off, I had to sit down for 10 minutes to get used to all the different colours and the seemingly intense light.

It was a terrifying experience, and even though it was fun to try, I can’t even start to think about how it must be to never take the blindfold off.