I entered 2026 with a house full of friends and food in the living room, partying while moving boxes filled the rooms. On January 2, the dismantling of the furniture will begin so that the next day we can sleep in a new address.
For the first time, I looked at apartments to choose where I would like to live, I walked around the neighborhood to understand what it would be like to live in the new neighborhood, I negotiated with landlords and brokers, I read contracts, I researched energy, gas and internet companies to make sure everything worked. Gestures that seem banal, but which, for people with visual impairments, constitute an important step towards obtaining autonomy which often takes longer to arrive, if ever.
It took me 36 years to rent my first property. Not that I wasn’t used to waiting. It was 18 years before I left home alone on the street for the first time, 21 years until my first kiss, about 30 years until I went to the supermarket, and so on. Only, the first job didn’t come early, but it didn’t take that long either, it arrived at the age of 22, thanks to the Folha training program.
Many factors sometimes slow down our journey. Above all, you often have to learn to accept your condition without being ashamed to use a cane, read braille and ask for help when you need it. Sometimes we don’t have all the information we need or we don’t know how we will be received in different contexts, because of ableism. Then there is the overprotectiveness of family members who often find it more comfortable to care for us than to teach us to take controlled risks. And, I admit, it is comforting to let helpful and loving people do for us, which, in excess, is poison to our autonomy.
I ended the year hearing stories of blind people who don’t leave the house alone, at most they take an Uber ride with someone waiting for them at their destination. Various reasons. They have never learned to do anything else, fear of ending up on the street, lack of training and sometimes even laziness.
I feel more comfortable talking about how clumsy I am when using the electronic coffee maker, sometimes I need help with trivial things, like finding the exit to the condo, or I need an artificial intelligence assistant to clean my shoes. After all, it is by dealing with our imperfections that learning and transformations emerge.
But, I kept thinking as I wrote the New Year’s goals: Won’t everything work out in the end? As inexperienced as I was, I suddenly feel like I can do almost anything? I worked, traveled without the company of anyone who could see, got married, ran five half marathons, and played a Chopin ballad on the piano. I even planted a tree in the Amazon. The son and the book are missing, nothing that is likely to appear one day in 2026.
Getting out of your comfort zone and venturing further into life isn’t easy, but it’s possible and absolutely rewarding. That’s why, in 2026, I hope you have the courage to initiate whatever changes you want.
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