Pastor, father, husband, counselor and friend are all titles Derek Daniel gladly calls himself. Blind is not one of them. “This, being blind, is not who I am,” Daniel said. “This does not define me.”
Ten years ago, Daniel experienced a sudden and dramatic loss of vision soon after he graduated high school. After several attempts at a diagnosis, Daniel’s doctors eventually discovered the cause of Daniel’s loss of vision, Leber’s Hereditary Optic Neuropathy (LHON), a hereditary disease that only about 10,000 Americans have.
As he adjusts some papers under the magnifying screen of his CCTV, Daniel begins to tell us how the piece of equipment works for him. The CCTV magnifies documents that are put on the feeder and his computer is connected to this screen (his computer is equipped with magnification software). The best part of the CCTV, he said, was that the screen could split into two halves. This allows him to have a document on the feeder to view on half of the screen and his computer screen on half of the screen which makes tasks like date entry much easier.
Sitting in a blue and green walled room in the basement of Bethel Community Church, Nikol and I listened to this young pastor, dressed casually in jeans and a multicolored striped sweater, as he told us about his life.
Adopted at three weeks old, Daniel had no way of knowing that he carried the gene that caused LHON . Losing his sight right after graduating high school, Daniel watched as his friends all left for college and he stayed behind. But Daniel was determined to keep going, sighted or not. “I’m Mr. Optimism,” Daniel said.
In the spirit of optimism, Daniel went to college, after about six months of orientation and mobility training. However, his first semester proved to be less than the ideal college experience. Often spending more time in his room than going to class or out in the commons, Daniel found it hard to be a freshman on campus. “It was a horrible semester,” Daniel said.
Things got better when Daniel transferred down to the University of Southern Indiana, where he had a suitemate and a few more friends. But not all the days were good days and Daniel found himself staying up all night and sleeping during the day, skipping class and becoming a recluse, something Daniel never did as a sighted person. “I’m an extrovert,” Daniel said. “I was a theater major for goodness sake.”
He tried joining clubs and groups on campus, but would quit after the first couple of meetings. What he was searching for, he could not find in others. When I asked him what helped him to snap out of it, Daniel said there was no real turning point or major revolution.What did happen, Daniel said, was that he had to realize his own self-worth.“You have to be fulfilled in yourself,” Daniel said. “I had to learn that groups will not give me purpose.”
Daniel went on to finish college and graduate from USI and is living in Southport, IN with April, his high school sweetheart, and their two children.Daniel says that his life is complete and whole, but still struggles with being blind and wants everyone to know that struggling is okay and part of living, with or without a disability.
Over the next few weeks, Daniel will be contributing to the blog as a guest blogger over a series of three posts. Stay tuned!