I spent twenty minutes with my eyes closed, and I went about my daily business in my room. I opened drawers, found objects, put on bracelets, blew up a balloon. I decorated my room some. I even drew a picture.

I knew where the mirror was, and I faced it and got all introspective about the difference between seeing and experiencing the world. I also theorized about how society might be different if no one saw their own body. I couldn’t see my own reflection, and somehow that was comforting.

I found this experience to be empowering. While I do not understand what it means to live a life as a blind person, I felt a new found appreciation for the world of texture and sound. The intuitive spacial awareness of knowing when I had turned around 180degrees.

That experience really drove home the point that the world is a multi-layered experience and to a large degree, disability is socially constructed. Was I any less of a human when I could not see? obviously not.

While this blog post comes from a space of privilege, since I just opened my eyes after those twenty minutes. Being able to even slightly re frame my reference of what experiencing the world could mean felt valuable.