Walking in Someone Else’s Shoes Essay

The first task is to act as if I were a blind person. It was a very hard condition for any person to experience, as I tried to walk around with my eyes shut. The only thing I could do was to listen to my surroundings in order to identify the thing or people around me. I also used my hands or a device—say a stick—to know where I am going or know what obstacles are blocking my way.

However, for real blind people, I know that their other senses are heightened because of the loss of sight.

The next task is not to use the one of my limbs—either a leg or an arm—since I use these everyday. I opted to go for one of my legs; my left specifically. The one of the complexities that I encountered were the lack of mobility that I experienced as I hopped around, and dragged my supposed “dead leg”.

I also constantly lost balance; had a hard time keeping myself balanced with one leg. To cope with this complexity, I used a stick to help maintain my balance and to add mobility.

The next task is to not speak, although I am allowed to converse in other forms—either sign language or writing it down on a piece of paper. At first, it is quite hard not to talk, especially when one of your siblings or one of your friends is around. It is true that a person can be social in many other ways, but talking seems to be the primary and the best way of socializing. The inability to speak is one hard condition to experience for any person as it hinders that person from socializing with others comprehensively.

The final task is to act as if I were a little person, by kneeling down; well it was four hours of pain for me. The major challenge that little people face is to reach things from higher places. Another challenge is the mobility of little people. It is hard for them to as they seem to lack the length of the leg to walk for long distances and to run. To cope with the challenges in reaching things, little people would have to use a stool in order to reach things; a stick for higher things. For mobility, they will have to pace themselves properly.