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Helen keller website
Tuesday, October 8, 2013
Out Of The Dark
I was born June 27th, 1880 in the small town of Tuscumbia, Alabama. I grew up with my parents and two younger sisters and 2 older step brothers. My father served as an officer in the confederate army in the civil war. My family owned a cotton plantation yet I grew up in a home that was far from wealthy.
I grew up as a healthy baby who started walking at the age of 1 which had my parents thinking I was going to be a special baby.
Once I was to the age of 19 months I began getting severely sick with a fever which left me blind and deaf. I was unable to communicate at all. My parents had no idea that this sickness left me deaf and blind until I began being unresponsive to everything. My mother would call me for dinner, when I would not answer she thought I was being disrespectful and ignoring her until she noticed I didn't respond to bells ringing or any other everyday common noises. That's when I found out I would not be able to speak or see the rest of my life. Many still do not know the main reasoning behind me mysterious sickness that left me being the most known and most famous handicapped person to live.
From the age of 6 I began working with Anne Sullivan. She was a teacher for children that had troubles with communication. Anne immediately began trying to teach me the alphabet. Once I knew the alphabet, I felt like this opened up an entire new world to me. My first word I learned was "water." I was able to learn this word from having running water put on my hand and using the alphabet each time my hand was under the water.
I had another teacher helping me with language and speech. Her name was Martha Washington. We worked together almost everyday. These were some of the most stressful days of my life. Me being under the age of 10 and having to learn and do everything at a much slower pace and having to do everything repeatedly every single day was a lot of pressure. Thankfully, by the age of 7 Martha and I had made over 60 signs in order for me to communicate.
In 1890 I began speech classes at Horace Mann school for the deaf. This school was in Boston. While at Horace Mann, I began learning communication skills.
6 years later I began going to Cambridge School For Young Girls. This is the point in my life when things started getting serious about communicating. While I attended Cambridge, I mastered many different types of communication. These methods included: Touch lip reading, braille, speech, typing and finger spelling.
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After mastering all of these forms of communication I was dedicated to do something with my life. I had enough confidence to be something instead of "the blind girl" or "the deaf girl". I wasn't positive of what I wanted to do but I knew it was going to be something important and I knew I wanted to make a difference.
I then began being a public speaker. The main things I spoke about were social and political issues. These issues included: women's rights and issues, pacifism, and birth control. These things weren't just random topics to talk about. These were all topics that I felt really strongly about. I have always had a big opinion on these things but I was never able to voice them until now. That's when I knew I really was going to be something. I knew that since I had all these opinions and thoughts bottled up for so long; I would have a HUGE opinion now that I could actually speak and communicate with everyone.
Later on in life I became an activist and a lecturer for women's rights. I also showed my support for other blind and deaf people. Which lead me to promote the American Foundation For The Blind.
After college I became a member of the Socialist Party. After being a member of the Socialist party, I was encouraged to write several articles about socialism. The main article I wrote was titled "Out Of The Dark". I got the inspiration for the tittle obviously because of the fact I had been living "in the dark" being blind. Once I was able to communicate with people I felt like I was out of the dark because I finally felt like I was somewhat important.
For the rest of my life I was convinced to continue on being important, being "someone" and encouraging other people to do the same. I began receiving many awards and recognitions by other many important people.
In 1936 I was awarded the Theodore Roosevelt distinguished service medal. Also, in 1946 I was appointed conseur of International relations for the American Foundation of overseas blind. Then again in 1946 I won the presidential medal of freedom.
From 1946 through 1957 I traveled to 35 countries. These were the most amazing years of my life. I was able to experience so many new and so many amazing things. During my journey through these 35 countries I began my 40,000 mile, 5 month trek through Asia. Don't forget I was 75 years old during this! This was by far the hardest thing I have ever done in my life. Those were 5 very grueling months of my life.
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I grew up as a healthy baby who started walking at the age of 1 which had my parents thinking I was going to be a special baby.
Once I was to the age of 19 months I began getting severely sick with a fever which left me blind and deaf. I was unable to communicate at all. My parents had no idea that this sickness left me deaf and blind until I began being unresponsive to everything. My mother would call me for dinner, when I would not answer she thought I was being disrespectful and ignoring her until she noticed I didn't respond to bells ringing or any other everyday common noises. That's when I found out I would not be able to speak or see the rest of my life. Many still do not know the main reasoning behind me mysterious sickness that left me being the most known and most famous handicapped person to live.
From the age of 6 I began working with Anne Sullivan. She was a teacher for children that had troubles with communication. Anne immediately began trying to teach me the alphabet. Once I knew the alphabet, I felt like this opened up an entire new world to me. My first word I learned was "water." I was able to learn this word from having running water put on my hand and using the alphabet each time my hand was under the water.
I had another teacher helping me with language and speech. Her name was Martha Washington. We worked together almost everyday. These were some of the most stressful days of my life. Me being under the age of 10 and having to learn and do everything at a much slower pace and having to do everything repeatedly every single day was a lot of pressure. Thankfully, by the age of 7 Martha and I had made over 60 signs in order for me to communicate.
In 1890 I began speech classes at Horace Mann school for the deaf. This school was in Boston. While at Horace Mann, I began learning communication skills.
6 years later I began going to Cambridge School For Young Girls. This is the point in my life when things started getting serious about communicating. While I attended Cambridge, I mastered many different types of communication. These methods included: Touch lip reading, braille, speech, typing and finger spelling.
After mastering all of these forms of communication I was dedicated to do something with my life. I had enough confidence to be something instead of "the blind girl" or "the deaf girl". I wasn't positive of what I wanted to do but I knew it was going to be something important and I knew I wanted to make a difference.
I then began being a public speaker. The main things I spoke about were social and political issues. These issues included: women's rights and issues, pacifism, and birth control. These things weren't just random topics to talk about. These were all topics that I felt really strongly about. I have always had a big opinion on these things but I was never able to voice them until now. That's when I knew I really was going to be something. I knew that since I had all these opinions and thoughts bottled up for so long; I would have a HUGE opinion now that I could actually speak and communicate with everyone.
Later on in life I became an activist and a lecturer for women's rights. I also showed my support for other blind and deaf people. Which lead me to promote the American Foundation For The Blind.
After college I became a member of the Socialist Party. After being a member of the Socialist party, I was encouraged to write several articles about socialism. The main article I wrote was titled "Out Of The Dark". I got the inspiration for the tittle obviously because of the fact I had been living "in the dark" being blind. Once I was able to communicate with people I felt like I was out of the dark because I finally felt like I was somewhat important.
For the rest of my life I was convinced to continue on being important, being "someone" and encouraging other people to do the same. I began receiving many awards and recognitions by other many important people.
In 1936 I was awarded the Theodore Roosevelt distinguished service medal. Also, in 1946 I was appointed conseur of International relations for the American Foundation of overseas blind. Then again in 1946 I won the presidential medal of freedom.
From 1946 through 1957 I traveled to 35 countries. These were the most amazing years of my life. I was able to experience so many new and so many amazing things. During my journey through these 35 countries I began my 40,000 mile, 5 month trek through Asia. Don't forget I was 75 years old during this! This was by far the hardest thing I have ever done in my life. Those were 5 very grueling months of my life.
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