I was at work out to lunch in a store when a guy came in the store shooting at another guy. My immediate reaction was to get down, but I was at the counter so I couldn’t get straight down. When I turned left to get down on the floor, a bullet struck me in my eye, which left me totally blind and damaged my optic nerve.
Immediately after that, I just thought my life was over. I thought, what am I going to do now? I can’t work and I can’t do anything,
I knew I had to do something, so I joined school where I learned how to do daily living stuff like how to clean my house, how to cook and how to maintain my bills. I gained a lot of self-esteem by going out and doing these things on my own trying to be independent.
Then I heard about Goodwill Industries of Southeastern Wisconsin and Metropolitan Chicago, and I definitely wanted to get back into the workplace. Man has Goodwill changed my life. I really have more confidence in my abilities to work. Hopefully one day I can go on and move up in Goodwill and be a supervisor.
I give seminars for visually impaired people and teachers that show them adaptive tools like cell phones and other things people can use that would help them.
I travel 65 miles to and from work. Since they gave me a chance, I’m going to be dedicated coming to work. I’ve been there 7 years, going on 8. I love my job, I really do.
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