Being blind

I started being blind by setting a timer to ring after an hour. Afterwards I blindfolded myself. I went around the house trying to feel all the walls and furniture without hurting myself or destroying anything but I eventually ruined the arrangement of a Sylvania set made by my little sister. When I went out in the kitchen, my cat begged for food. It was quite hard to give him the right amount of food without spilling but I managed. Because of my lack of vision the only thing could do on my computer was to hear music. Because I was unable to choose which songs I wanted to hear it became pretty boring after a while. On the bright side: you could hear all the details in the music much better than if it had been under normal circumstances. Afterwards I tried to walk into the living room because I wanted to watch TV. I somehow ended up in the other end of the room than the one I had headed for. After finally finding the sofa, I stumbled upon another problem. I had no idea where the TV remote were. After I feverishly looked after it in over 10 minutes, I finally stumbled on it in the sofa. Unfortunately, it was quite boring to watch TV when I couldn’t see anything. I really wanted to read something but it was obviously impossible to do so. I therefore decided to hear music until the hour has passed. I was extremely bored because my blindness gave me so many limits. I was also pretty thirsty but I couldn’t make tea because I was really scared that I would spill hot water and thereby burn myself. I was really pleased when the clock rang.

Deaf for an hour (or a half)

First, I will like to make a confession. I was only blind for half an hour, because I found it very boring. However, I guess I was not the only one. Admit it guys;)))

              Secondly, I will like to tell you about what I did. I had a hard time choosing whether to blindfold myself for an hour or to be deaf for an hour. Anyway, I was lying in bed and all I wanted to was to watch How I Met Your Mother, so ”Is there a way to do my homework while I watch How I Met?” I thought and I concluded that yes, there is a way. Therefore, I decided to be deaf. I stuffed my ears with toilet paper and put on a hearing protector. Then I turned on my computer and saw an episode, only able to read the subtitles. However, it was not as great as I thought. I thought that it did not mattered that much, but I actually think it is of great importance. I was not very good concentrating and it bored me a bit, which it usually never does. Afterwards, I just sat in by bed, wondering what to do. I did not want to go downstairs and even try to have a conversation with my mom. Therefore, after 5 minutes I took the hearing protector off.

            Anyway, as you may already sense, I did not like not being able to hear anything. I found it very frustrating and I feel very sorry for people who are dealing with deafness every day.  

At first I couldn’t take it serious. Probably because it just felt like I was in a quiet room, but after a few minutes, I wanted to take the cottons out of my ears. I couldn’t even hear my own breathing and the birds singing. I was trying to get forget about, so I went down stairs to watch TV, but it got boring. Not to hear the effects or how the actors talked. All those things. After that I was going to listen to some music, which I do every day for hours, but it was horrible not to be able to listen to music. Later my sister came into my room, not knowing that I had this kind of assignment for tomorrow. At first I didn’t noticed her, but then she got in front of me and told or asked me something. I wrote on my computer, that this was homework for tomorrow. She understood, but she still wanted to tell how her day was and she couldn’t wait for a hour, so we ended up doing it the old fashion way. Pen and paper. It took a long time and it was annoying not to hear someone else’s voice and how the expressed themselves through sound. It was almost painful not to hear anything. Even when you are reading a book, you can still hear sounds, but this was too quiet. 

Blindfolded

How I experienced being blind:

I just can´t see anything. My sense of sight is literally switched off. Like entering a black room where I can´t find the point, and if I did, turning the lights on still wouldn’t help. Because I can´t see anything lighted. I can´t see any light. I just can´t see anything. No colours, no movements, just nothing. My hands are my radar guiding me through the blackness. The blackness that I can´t even see. I have to sense where I am and where I´m going. Be careful of not bumping into a table or something like that. At first I moved slowly around, scared of falling or hitting anything, but after a while, I kind of got used to it.

In some way, it´s not that difficult being blind, because it seems like I hear and smell better. Of cause it can´t be true that my senses gets better the second I blindfold myself. But for some reason, when I can´t see, it seems like the sounds increases and my nose gets more sensitive. It´s obvious that it´s easier walking around when I´m able to see, but I think I could get used to it. Of cause there´s things, which would make my everyday-life troublesome, if I got blind, but there is always props and cons of everything.

Deaf for an hour

Never have I experienced something like being deaf for an hour. It was on one hand very fascinating but on the other it made me a little uncomfortable.
          I live in a house filled with different noises. The old stair is supposed to creak, the big tree outside my window is supposed to scratch on the window. There were none of these sounds.  I did not even realize my brother was trying to speak to me before he touched my arm and even then, I could not understand anything. He had to write down, what he wanted to say to me. Only then could I give him an answer. I then tried to watch a movie, but without the sound it was completely impossible to enjoy it. I did not understand what was happening on the screen because I could not hear any of the voices or music. It was straight out boring. I have never realized how much sounds and background music does for a movie before now. It is everything.
          After my attempt to watch a movie failed miserably I decided to do my homework instead. Normally I enjoy and prefer silence when I do my homework, because it helps me concentrate. But this kind of silence was different. It made me a little uncomfortable, because everything was just too silent. In the first couple of minutes it was nice because I could just shut the world out, but then it became too much. I realized that even when I sit in “silence” normally, there are little quiet sounds around me. The wind, my siblings talking, my animals, the roof creaking. It was hard for me to concentrate because they were missing.

In conclusion it was interesting being deaf, but it is not something I hope to become in the future because I felt very disabled. This experience has given me a whole new perspective on being deaf.  

Deaf for an hour

I stuffed the cotton in my ears making sure that it was well secured so that no sound would get past the cotton. I was quite nervous about how this experience would affect all the things that I usually do without thinking, even if it was only for an hour.  At first I was at a loss on what to do, my first thought was to watch some TV, but then I remembered there really wouldn’t any point in doing that. Finally, I decided to sit down to do some homework.

A while later, it was time for dinner my mom had to tell me by pointing at the table instead of just calling like she usually does. Dinner was a peculiar experience. I had no way of participating in a conversation with my parents like I usually do. All I could do was to observe their mouths forming the words that I couldn’t hear and speculate on what they were conversing about.  

After a long hour I could finally remove the cotton from my ears and regain my hearing. I was surprised that I didn’t find this experience as awful as I thought I would. In a way it was nice to be able to shut out the world and be alone with my thoughts for a while. However, I don’t think being deaf is in any way a pleasant thing to live with as you have a lot disadvantages that other people don’t, especially when communicating. From what I experienced losing one sense, in this case my hearing, heightens your other senses. I felt that I used my sight much more for orientating myself than I usually do when I can do it by just listening. Overall I have found this whole experience really interesting and it gave me a different perspective on how it is to be deaf.

Blind for an hour

Blind for an hour

I tried to get out of my room on the first floor by feel my way. After some difficulties I detected the door handle and got the door open. Now the next goal was to get down the stairs. My hands clung to the banister and I had a very uncomfortable feeling, because I didn’t know whether there was a step more or not. On the way down the stairs my mother was calling and I told her that she had to wait for me, because I only dared to move slowly. When I had accomplished getting down the stairs, I had dinner without knowing what we were having. When I came closer to the dining table an aromatic smell invaded my nose and the smell felt stronger and more penetrating than normal. Despite the fact, that I couldn’t see what we were having, I had no doubts that the smell came from salmon. When I tasted the dish I was overwhelmed by how easy it was to distinguish between the taste of every mouthful. In short this dinner was more diverse than normally.    

 
This experience was different from my normal life, because I used the sense of smell, the sense of touch and the sense of hearing more than normally, when I’m able to see. Furthermore, I discovered how it’s possible to feel a kind of restriction when you for instance want to hurry down the stairs and you can’t. Also when I wanted to get out of my room I used the sense of touch to find the door handle instead of looking for it. After trying blindness I have got an even greater respect for people who are blind their whole life.