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The Day I Never Saw

Have you ever thought about what it feels like to be blind? It is a hard thing to think about. Being blind is not easy. How I know this is because I have been blind for 24 hours straight. 

In my last play that I was in, I played a kid named Barry who was blind. To get into Barry’s character, my Alton Children’s Theater play director, Andy Burnside, suggested I live blind for a day.

I went to bed with gauze completely covering my eyes.

The next morning, I was the first one to wake up. I carefully walked downstairs and made my way to the kitchen. I found a box of waffles or pancakes in the fridge. I had hoped they were waffles because I put two in the toaster. They were Cinnamon Toast Waffles! I realized that when they broke apart with ease.



My feet were freezing so I went back to my room to get socks. At the time, I had no idea I was wearing different colored socks. It’s hard to tell the difference in color when you can’t see.



After breakfast, I made my way outside to my trampoline. That was a really weird experience. Lucky for me, I have the kind with safety netting all around.



To pass the time, I wanted to listen to an audio book on my iPhone. My dad downloaded Maximum Ride: The Angel Experiment. It took me about six hours to listen to the whole thing. It was a great book. I totally recommend it. 

Watching tv was pretty weird too. Of course, I’ve seen most all the episodes of many kid’s shows so it was pretty easy to follow.



Later, I went with my dad to Walgreens. I was a bit nervous about going in because I knew everyone would be staring at me. But, like my dad said, “How would I know?” But I could feel it.

Even before the checkout lady spoke, I could sense someone there. She asked, “How are you young man.” I knew she was talking to me and I said, “I am pretty good.” She whispered to my dad, “What happened?” He explained and she was relieved. She thought I was really blind from an injury. 

From there, went to Roma’s in Bethalto to pick up a pizza. I could sense the motion going on in the kitchen. No one spoke to me there. I could feel people all around me eating and talking. My Dad asked me how many people I thought were in the restaurant. I “counted” about twenty. In fact, there were 22 people in there. Weird, huh?

At the end of the experiment, when I removed my blindfold everyone and everything seemed bigger. My bed looked like a king size! It’s a full size. My house seemed like it was twice it’s size.

Blind for a day was a great idea and it really helped me get into character for the play. Overall, it was the craziest thing I have ever done! This kind of experiment really makes me appreciate the things we take for granted. Like vision.

I dare you to try it.

Congratualtions Rachel H. from Bethalto. She wins two movie passes for being the first to submit an idea for me last week.

Rachel writes: Now that the weather is getting warmer here is a great idea and something I have enjoyed doing with my friends. We take our dogs to lunch with us at the Boathouse in Forest Park and dine on the patio. This is a pet friendly place. It is fun just to watch the dogs interact. Then when we are done with lunch we rent a paddle boat (you can also rent row boats and kayaks) and take our dogs with us out onto Post-Dispatch Lake. You can rent the boats by the hour.

Thanks for the idea Rachel. I’m gonna give it a try.

If you have done something interesting lately, let me know. I may mention it in an upcoming issue.