A few months ago, I was presented with a valuable opportunity to recognize the hardships of the blind through volunteer work.

In April, I applied for an interview as a volunteer for blind people at Gangnam Yeoksam Youth Center.

The results came out and eventually, I got accepted. 

Through this  volunteer experience, I met a lot of people that are part of my team in the volunteering work. The name for our team was  “B-Able.”

B-Able is a group that helps blind people get educated and allows them to socialize with others. We made a powerpoint presentation explaining what we are going to do throughout the entire time.

We met other groups of volunteers also. There were groups aimed at  educating young children and helping deaf people or people with cancer. 

This organization arranges events for the volunteers, such as giving out small monetary donations, presents, and even tickets for other entertainment events.

Today, I took a class that a blind person taught. She told us about her life and what she has gone through.

 I felt a little emotional when I heard her harsh stories and the hardships she had to endure of being a blind person.

Surprisingly, at first, I wasn’t aware of the fact that she was blind. I just thought she was an instructor that was telling us stories about blind people, but when I noticed she was one of them, the stories that she told us touched me very much.

Another thing that I was able to learn through this experience is about something called a cane.  A cane is something that blind people use to be aware of the direction they are heading. She told us one of her stories about the cane. 

She said without the cane, if she bumps into someone they would be  mad at her or even swear at her. However, when she carried the cane with her, they surprisingly did not care or even apologized to her.

This story made me reconsider the way  people view the blind I thought that people have the perception that blind people are  weak and hence care about them more.

Also, she said she was looking for an occupation she could do, but as a blind person as there are not many jobs she is capable of doing. 

The one she was able to find was being a singer. The singer was an adequate job that fit her as she did not need to use her sights. 

The name that she goes by when working as a singer is “Lumiere”. The songs that came to her like a present were the songs named “Special day” and “Bloom”. 

She sang these songs in front of us. The songs were so beautiful that I cannot even express my feelings with words.

Thinking about those hardships she endured before getting the job as a singer was unpredictable for me.

If I were her, I do not think I would  be able to go through those harsh times and would’ve fallen into depression. Watching her enjoying her life and her job really made me overthink my life.

I thought it was so admirable that someone that has many difficulties due to disabled parts in their body was working hard trying to love their life. 

On the other hand, the fact that I was complaining about how my life is boring was embarrassing.

From now on, as I really respect her for her way of living life, I decided to try to live a more meaningful life and always be thankful.

This volunteering experience would be very remarkable for me because it taught me a lot of morals. 

Tomorrow, my volunteering mates and I will learn how to read braille. We are learning this to help blind people, and also to spread the difficulties of their life and raise awareness of these people.

Additionally, after we learn those braille, we are planning on going to various places in South Korea to spread further awareness of  blind people.

We are looking forward to doing more of these kinds of events in the future, which I think would be very memorable moments.