Disability and our mindset

On Tuesday morning, I visited University of Jos main Campus with a friend for some special reasons. As we walked in through the gate, we were delayed as the security guard refused me entering the premises with my bag. My friend presented his Identity card which eventually gave us access.We entered with no previous knowledge of our exact destination.

As we stood at a central point to seek for directions from a passerby, a slim, tall, fair skinned young lady wearing a black hijab accompanied by another lady held my friend firmly on his palm. I felt uneasy until I saw that my friend was relaxed and calm.Her accent and choice of words were exceptional. I watched him closely as he beckoned on another lady and said "Please kindly assist me take this lady to the faculty of Law".At that moment, I realised the lady was blind and I became a bit excited to talk to my friend about her. We discussed for a while on the subject matter and we regretted letting her go because there was more to her than we noticed in the past few minutes.

We both became so restless and really wished we maximized the opportunity to discuss with her. The question is 'how do we go searching for her when we have no idea of her name or level'. We sure wouldn't want to do a search with a the name tag 'The blind girl' but nevertheless we believed we would see her.

After much descriptions, we were able to locate the faculty of Law. We sought for help by describing her body size, skin colour and hijab colour. A male law student volunteered to take us round the 100 and 200 level Classes but our search seemed non fruitful.
As we stepped out of the auditorium, we saw our damsel standing right there swiping her phone effortlessly. That marveled me.

My friend immediately asked about her phone and how she uses it. In less than 15seconds she explained in details the speak-to and speak-back method of communication. Her confidence, poise and her non sympathetic tone of words marvelled us. She has been blind since she was four.

Hello dear, I said to her. She turned towards my direction maybe to have a good grasp of the words. We both introduced ourselves to her and started off a conversation.

We went further to ask her more questions ranging from academics, social life and interpersonal relationships.We discovered we weren't in any way happier than her. She gave us reasons to meditate and ponder on her words.
Her last words "I hate being a liability and I also believe there is a way out in every problem one encounters, people will definitely get tired of helping me someday so I chose to do things myself".

Her name is Benita and she is a 100L Law student. She believes she can be more than pondering on her 'weakness' and letting herself pitied by all.
Benita isn't disabled, she does everything herself including meal preparation for her family.

Stand up and face those assumed disabilities.
You can be more than you think.

P.S: She granted me the request to use her picture for this write-up and she sends her regards to all who will get inspired by her story.