The Coburn Blog

This is a funny book we found on Amazon

The Gas we Pass: The story of Farts

I WANT this book!! hehe One cool thing about having Crohns disease, I think, is having the ability to laugh about things like farts, burbs, and other bodily functions, that other people are so private about. I think keeping a sense of humor going, is most important above all else. hehe

I had my first SLA Leadership Academy meeting at the South Bend College campus the other day. It was so much fun. We get 2 college credits for taking the class, plus a series of homework assignments, and even a test, although the Leadership Academy is different then most classes, I think, in that its totally voluntary, plus we have to do so many hours of Community Service, which is just something else I can put on my resume.

What I plan on doing for my 30 hours of Community Service, I want to sign up for Big Brothers / Big Sisters. My SLA group leader, was saying, big brothers big sisters volunteers no longer go to kids ballgames, or to get pizza or ice cream, or nothing cool like that anymore, like they used to do when I was little. They do this thing now, where they spend 1 hr a day eating lunch with a child at school, one day a week. I thought to myself, doing that wouldn’t be as much fun for the child as going to one of his ballgames, but I guess its what they do now, because of some privacy issues now. In a way though, its easier for me, that way I don’t have to be able to drive, in order to be a big brother to a little boy who has no daddy, so thats what I’m going to do for my Community Service project. I’m sure it’ll probably be a boy. I wouldn’t mind being a big brother to a little girl, but I don’t think they allow that, but it’ll be fun.

I just don’t get it though, Big Brothers Big Sisters has this whole background check process they do on you, yet they don’t trust the volunteers to come to a house and spend time with a boy, or girl, who has no mom or dad? That just don’t make any sense to me. I remember when I was a member of big brothers big sisters when I was 11 years old when my parents first got divorced, I had a lady take me to get ice cream. That was FUN. I understand there are some weird people out there, but you’d think the background check would be enough (shrugs) but oh well. Like I said, this way makes it easier for me, so I don’t have to have a drivers license to spend time being a big brother. I think that part is great that they have that now.

I am noticing this world of ours is really changing though. It used to be, a blind or visually impaired person could just ask one of his fellow classmates for a ride home, offering to pay for their gas and time, but as I am finding out, that is no longer trustworthy. Since I’ve started back at school, I’ve asked several fellow classmates for a ride home, and nobody wants to do it, because they don’t feel “comfortable” with it. I told my mobility instructor about this (who is a young lady in fact) and she said she has never heard of blind people having problems with a fellow student taking home another fellow student from school, but yet it happens to me all the time when I try to ask somebody, so I just don’t get it.. My mobility instructor said I’m just not being assertive enough. When you ask, and the person says no, how is that not being assertive enough?

I asked my VR counselor a couple months ago, in fact, that I would need to have VR arrange transportation back and forth between school, and you know what my VR counselor said? He says “well cant you just ride home with somebody? We can pay that person 40 cents/mile” which at the time, I thought was a good idea, until I started asking people, then all of a sudden its like “well I don’t feel comfortable with that”.

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t blame them for feeling that way. After all, they don’t know me, but I don’t think VR understands that things are changing, and that its no longer acceptable for a student to ask another student for a ride home anymore. It isn’t just the girls, its the guys that say that too, like common.

I guess I just miss the way things used to be, where everybody knew who you were, and were not afraid to say hello. It just makes me wish I hadn’t signed up for the SLA Academy, because I’m going to have issues finding my way around these different campuses, and I just never anticipated, that my other fellow group members would be so “afraid” to help. I guess this is where all the hatred that other people have against me over the computer, comes from too, eh?

Anyway, today Susan and I were at Walmart, and a guy stopped me who was outside taking donations for the Blind. He offered me the NIV Bible on tape, and several other Christian publications available in audio format. I signed up, and will hopefully get those soon. He asked me if I knew braille. I am taking braille literacy 1 now as we speak, but only time will tell as to how fluent I’ll be at it. I told him I just wanted audio format for now. They also have a Blind camp, for the first month of July every year. I wanted to go this past year, but I was too busy with my homework for school, and living skills training, to get away for that long. Plus there was a $35 application fee, which I did not have, but hopefully I’ll get to go next year, would be nice to be able to talk to other Christian blind and visually impaired people again, I haven’t done that in so long, not since high school.. I just kept thinking, blind people don’t need sympathy or donations for anything, but we sure could use transportation assistance.