In the winter of 2022, I started therapy. I hit a low point due to the mental stress of losing my vision. I wasn’t okay and tried not to show it.
As my therapist, and I talked he helped me, but he also uncovered an issue. I have a problem asking for help and believing that people will care. It stems from trauma and it’s the worst trait I have.
I still struggle with it today, but I’m getting better. I’m more aware and trying to ask for help more instead of thinking I can do it myself or asking will be a burden.
Will people care? Well, that is a different story. That answer comes pretty frequently during my bucket list journey.
Meeting Cody Johnson was on my list. I asked a friend in the country radio world if he could help make that happen. He did, he worked it out with people in Nashville, and I got to meet Cody Johnson in December of 2023. Going out of his way showed he cared.
On the night of the meet and greet, I took a photo with Cody and decided to shoot my shot. I asked for a moment of his time even though people were waiting in line behind me to meet him. I told Cody my story about going blind and the bucket list. He got emotional, he shared a personal story of when he thought his days were numbered, he told me how he would pray for me and gave me a hug.
In that moment, I realized he cared too. A country music singer that sees people all day, takes photos, and moves on with his day made time for me.
It was sharing my story with the news. It was the reactions of reporters like Chris Parente and Katie Orth in Denver and the kind words they shared in emails, it was the friends that asked about me and how they could help, it was the people that understood what I was trying to share, it’s the people that shared my story or took the time to visit the website.
It’s my wife. My best friend and biggest supporter. Who has seen me struggle to accept my diagnosis. Has seen me crawling on the floor to find something I’ve dropped because I’m too afraid to ask her to help me find it. It’s knowing that she’s my shoulder to lean on, and my eyes in the dark when she didn’t sign up for this life as I wasn’t blind when we started dating.
As much as I love my therapist, I didn’t need him to teach me that people care. It’s all of you that taught me that.
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