I'm lost all the time, but it doesn't deter me from trying it again.
And you're always going to try to find the safest way to go, even if it's a longer way
around.
If I go to a new place, it's about, well, how am I going to learn this new place?
Who can I hook up with that I can actually trust to help me do this without being a
inconvenience to them?
I sit down next to someone.
They don't know that I feel uncomfortable, but inside I'm like, here we go, I got to
work this thing.
And I'll sit down next to you, get you to start talking, you start talking, we start
talking, then the rest is history.
My name is Frank Singer, I'll be 59 March 9th.
I grew up in Harlem on 133th Street in Lincoln Projects.
I've been blind all my life because I was premature, too much oxygen, destroyed the
optic nerve.
I had fantastic parents that really made sure that I was a part of the neighborhood and
not isolated from anyone, they really encouraged me to go outside and play with all the other
kids and that was the beginning of who I am.
They didn't buy me crayons with a paper, they bought me finger painting, so I could play
with that.
Dark to blind people, some blind people, is just a word because they've never seen light,
but they don't know what dark is, it's just a word.
Sometimes I walk into a room and I'll go, wow, this room feels really bright and they'll
go, no, it's dark, but I mean, so I don't know.
I really see no dark, no light.
Fear exists every day of my life.
Worst place in the neighborhood is anywhere where there's construction.
Back in the day, I did walk into a hole.
I was maybe 16, 17, the hole came up to my neck, maybe my head, but I didn't get hurt.
It stays with me till today.
Every step I take, yeah, you don't know if there's something in front of you and as
the day goes along, I get more confident because I'm still surviving through the first part
of the morning, I made it safely there.
Okay, I get up, I go to the next place, it's the cycle of my life.
And people are forced to really focus on detail.
The voice tells me everything about you.
You might look at the color of the person's eyes, but I'm listening to the color of that
person's voice, color of personality.
And even when you read Braille, you're actually seeing one letter at a time, you're not seeing
the whole word, boom.
The blind person is seeing one letter at a time as he goes across the page.
Just to be able to appreciate the beauty of a mountain, don't forget, when we touch that
mountain, we're touching one rock.
So we can't appreciate that beauty from a distance, to see the whole shape of it, the
whole thing.
It's mind-blowing to me because I can't comprehend it.
I can't hear it, so I can't even imagine trying to see it.
I love New York City.
Going it appears on either side, walking along the water and hearing the sound of the river.
It's a beautiful thing.
The chatter of Spanish folks playing dominoes, you hear the, Ciego, Ciego, you know, they're
talking about you going by talking about blind.
You can walk through a neighborhood and feel poverty, yes, no doubt.
It's a different smell.
It's the smell of gas coming through the buildings.
I don't care if it's a bad neighborhood, good neighborhood.
Maybe because I'm blind, nobody bothers me.
I was three years old and my mother was taking me down to Virginia and we walked into the,
I guess it was a luncheonette or something.
I asked, could we use the bathroom?
And the guy said, the one for colored people are over there, wherever over there was.
But she goes, my son is blind.
And he said, okay, I could get in trouble for this, but I'm going to let you go.
I didn't really know I was blind until the man told me I was blind.
When I got back home, around my friends who were the same age, it was like, you don't
have what I have.
I wasn't sure if I felt special or left out.
Your sight is so powerful that you're looking ahead, paying attention to the moment.
If that's a gift, it's a beautiful gift.
I don't say it's a trade-off for what sight is.
I would love to be able to look around the room.
Sure, I think I thrive on, because I want to prove to myself that I belong.
It'll be like a one, two, one, two, three.
It's California, it's so cold in there.
It's California, it's so cold in there.
