“Dating someone who is blind is honestly not as hard as it sounds”
by Alicia
As promised, here’s the second part of Alicia Krage’s post about some of the challenges and joys of being — and dating – someone who’s blind.
by Alicia Krage
In March of last year, as Joe and I lingered somewhere between friends and a couple, I’d often reflect on my friends’ questions about whether I’d prefer dating someone who can see, or someone who is blind.
I thought about what the challenges were with both, and in the end I realized that being blind and dating someone who is blind is honestly not as hard as it sounds. Transportation becomes a problem sometimes – you can’t exactly stay out until 2am and drive home – but working on things together like figuring out schedules for trains and buses has helped me gain a different sort of independence.
I visit Joe at his college every other weekend, and I take the train back and forth to Northern Illinois University by myself. I’m much more confident on my own now than I was before I met Joe.
We go on dates a lot, and restaurants are very good about walking us to our seat, offering us Braille menus (if they have some), or reading off some of the selections.
Here’s a tip, though. Narrow down your selection to a few categories –servers don’t appreciate having to read the entire menu! They’ll be a lot happier if you ask them to, say, just read all the pasta or burgers. That, or use your speech software to look up the menu online ahead of time.
Now back to dates with Joe. We’ve talked about experiencing other things on dates, like going to concerts, and I think we’ll be doing that together soon. He’s the kind of person that motivates you to be better, the kind that urges you (politely) to step out of your comfort zone a little bit.
Some things take more assistance than others, but it isn’t impossible, and there’s no one else I’d rather share crazy adventures with than my boyfriend Joe.
I look back at my previous relationships and question my motives, but in the end, I know those relationships taught me a lot. I learned what I want in someone and what I don’t, what works and what doesn’t, and I took that into consideration.
Joe and I are two months shy of our one-year anniversary, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.
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