This past year, Mom deep-cleaned the basement, put in new flooring (by herself), donated/threw away things we no longer used and reorganized special items we wanted to keep. One day several months ago, shortly after this massive undertaking was complete, I had just finished walking on the treadmill one Tuesday evening when I grabbed myContinueContinue reading “What I Would Tell the Teenage Girl Who Wrote a Letter to President Bush”
Author Archives: Allison Nastoff
Chapter 8: A Complicated Question
It is 2010, and I am standing in front of a classroom of thirty college students at Carroll University where I am a student myself. But I am not in this class. My classes are in the communication and english departments. This is a class for business majors studying diversity in the workplace, and IContinueContinue reading “Chapter 8: A Complicated Question”
Chapter 7: The Rivers of Faith and Life Come Together
The first seeds of awareness that seminary school might be in my future were planted every time we went to Elmbrook Church, where I would be on the edge of my seat, fully engaged with the academic nature of each sermon that brought the Bible to life, and then fertilized one Sunday in 2013 whenContinueContinue reading “Chapter 7: The Rivers of Faith and Life Come Together”
Chapter 6: Coming to Faith
It is one of many Sunday mornings growing up. Most of the family is in the car, which is idling in the driveway. I say most because we were always waiting on one pokey sibling. BEEEP! Dad lays on the car horn. “Where is he?” Dad would mutter angrily. ContinueContinue reading “Chapter 6: Coming to Faith”
Chapter 5: School Days
I am in first grade, and it is toward the beginning of the school year. The classroom consists of six short round tables, around which are four tiny plastic chairs. I sit in one of these chairs, and next to me in an adult chair sits Mrs. Zahn, the full-time teacher’s aid that helps meContinueContinue reading “Chapter 5: School Days”
Chapter 4: A Tangent on Braille
Before I continue, perhaps you readers would appreciate a primer. I am so accustomed to being blind, and so familiar with braille and all of the technology I use that it is easy to forget how foreign and “amazing” it is to the general public. You have likely heard the name Louis Braille, an iconContinueContinue reading “Chapter 4: A Tangent on Braille”
Chapter 3: A Rogue Wave Just Before Kindergarten
While I was playing and learning at the Center, conscious only of the present moment, my parents and teachers were thinking about my future. My parents had a big decision to make, one that would effect the course of my entire life. Where would I attend elementary school? My older siblings attended aContinueContinue reading “Chapter 3: A Rogue Wave Just Before Kindergarten”
Chapter 2: Rough Waters From the Start
“I know you’re an adult now and I shouldn’t drag you to things anymore, but I’m dragging you to this. I think it’s important,” Mom said. It was October 2011 and I was complaining because I had just found out that Mom, Grandma and I would be going to a grand opening eventContinueContinue reading “Chapter 2: Rough Waters From the Start”
Chapter 1: The River
As I announced last September, I published a memoir, The Rivers of My Life, about my childhood as a blind person, and my faith journey. At the time, I was hoping to sell books, trying to resurrect my dream of writing for a living. But given the pandemic, and the busyness of school, I neverContinueContinue reading “Chapter 1: The River”
I need My Rumspringa (Part 2)
I was on track to set out on my Rumspringa August 29, 2008 when my parents helped me move into the college dorm. I gave Disability Services the textbooks I needed months in advance, and after three weeks of guide dog training, Gilbert and I could expertly navigate the routes to the dining room andContinueContinue reading “I need My Rumspringa (Part 2)”
Gilbert and Me 