Navigating Life

Being blind doesn't mean you can't see. In the book "Blind" by Rachel DeWoskin, the main character Emma is blind. She has to navigate through life in high school and she wants more independence, which isn't easy when you're blind. Through losses, untrustworthy friends, and of course being blind, Emma starts to see how the world around her is.

Logan, Emma's best friend, has kept a lot from Emma. She realizes that she had no clue what Logan had done over the summer, and she finds out from someone else. This really hurts Emma. It breaks their code that they made in elementary school. This is probably very frightening for Emma. It made them super close, and now they are drifting apart a little. I think this was because Logan was going through a rough time, and Emma didn't support her because she had become blind. Also, Emma feels lonely and, because she had been, lied to. Its harder for Emma to be able to trust Logan. Since Logan was her best friend, she feels alone, even with Logan. It also hurts her because she told Logan everything, but Logan kept a lot from her.

Emma has to deal with being blind. She can't always do what she wants to, which is hard when she is struggling for independence. For example, her art teacher acts as if Emma can't possibly do art, but Emma knows she can. She makes a sculpture to prove the art teacher wrong, which does make the art teacher see her doing art. She can't always see what people look like around her and exactly where they are. It makes it more difficult to envision people and what is happening. She meets new people and doesn't know what they look like. Also, when she meets Seb at blind school, she realizes he does everything she wants, which makes him a mentor and it is aggravating to know he is succeeding so easily, but she is still working hard.

One of Emma's classmates, Claire, dies from a drug overdose which led to drowning herself. It makes Emma realize some really important things. This could happen to anyone. Will Claire be an influence on other kids going through tough times, including Logan and herself? And speaking of her, why hasn't Emma killed herself yet. Emma knows that she is stronger than Claire, and maybe the family that loves her makes her stronger. Also, Emma knows that Claire struggled with being lesbian, and she can't decide if being blind is worse, but she thinks it is, which makes the situation confusing. She makes a group that comes together and talks about their problems so that no one else kills themselves, and Emma thinks in these groups- why are Claire's struggles too much to handle, but her's aren't?

Emma is dealing with tough problems in her life, and she is figuring out how to get through them, because even though she'll be blind forever, high school won't last forever. Both things, however, need to be the best they can in the moment. So what would you see in the world around you if you were blind?