Happy Braille's Day

‘‘I lost my sight at the age of three due to an accident but because I wanted to learn so badly, I invented something that would help me read and understand without having to use my eyes’’, Louis Braille would have said this if he is alive right now but fortunately or unfortunately, we have to speak for him. Today being the 4^th of January is seen as the world’s Braille day and I asked to myself, what can I do to make a difference on this day? This question is a very big one and it is a question that we should ask ourselves on a daily basis. A little while after I asked this question, an idea came to mind. ‘‘I would really love to impact lives and educate people as well’’, that was when I decided within myself that I would bring to people’s awareness the people who have in one way or the other been of great help and assistance to us and our lives today, people who thought beyond their generation and have made it possible for us to live happier.

Funny enough, some of these people are not been widely recognized and some of them we do not know their names but if there’s something I’ve learnt in the years I’ve lived, it is to give honour to who honour is due. Honouring a person who made effort to make living worthwhile for someone who would have easily given up hope is very important and through this we tend to attract greatness to ourselves. I want to use this opportunity to honour one of the people who have lived before us that have helped so many blind people in the world today. I want to tell you a story, a story of a child who was born fit but died blind. Want to hear it?

On the 4^th of January, 1809, a child was born in Coupvray, a small town about twenty miles east of Paris. He was born into the family of Simon-René and Monique and had three elder siblings Monique Catherine, Louis-Simon and Marie Céline. At the age of three, this child while playing with a stitching awl in his father’s harness making shop, a tool slipped and plunged into his right eye. Sympathetic ophthalmia and total blindness set in after that accident. Nevertheless, he didn’t give up; he excelled in his education and received a scholarship in 1819 from the first special school for blind people in the world, Institut National des Jeunes Aveugles (National Institute for Blind Children or Royal Institution for Blind Youth). While he was a student there, he started inventing the Braille system which helped blind people to learn faster and more efficiently and he showcased it for the first time in 1824. He also used this system to learn music and he grew up being a notable musician and organist. The child who did this little thing to help his fellow students as at that time, who didn’t use his blindness as an excuse, who turned his flaw or defect into greatness is no other than LOUIS BRAILLE. He has given a lot of blind people a reason to live, a reason to not give up, and a reason to strive and be the best of themselves. Presently, this system helps blind people all over the world and was used to replace the Haüys system, which was invented by a philanthropist who dedicated his life to helping the blind, wasn’t blind himself though.

It’s not easy to live blind in a world filled with people who can see, but it doesn’t stop you from being the best in everything you do. A lot of blind people sometimes don’t have people to motivate them and end up giving excuses or giving up but I want to tell you today, you can do it, you are capable, you have what it takes. Don’t let what people say break you, show them that you are bigger than that defect, show them that you are determined to make the most of yourself and I bet you, there are sincere people out there who are ever ready to help you throughout that journey. I want to dedicate this piece to every blind person out there, I know it’s difficult not to give, I know it’s hard to stand strong and not fall out of line but have it in mind that the very day you decide to be the best you, that day will change your entire life. Always have Louis Braille in mind, have people around you in mind, have yourself in mind and you will find out that standing tall and strong is worth it.

Lastly, if you are seeing this today, I have one request. I want you to go out there, look for any blind person (one, two or more), give them gifts, chat with them, be their motivation and also don’t forget to read this piece to him or her. It’s not easy to lose one’s sight; it’s hard to adapt to just the four other senses.

©Laura Phil

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