My First Week at Grand Canyon University

The first week of my online school experience is down in the record books. In fact, we are half way through the second week. This makes me expert enough to chat with you right?

Maybe not...

I'm going to do it anyway. I love my school so far guys! It so far has been a wonderful experience. If this is any indication of how the rest of my program is going to go, I have nothing to worry about.

Gran Canyon (GCU) has so many resources to set students up for success. The level of student support is outstanding. Haven't been to school in a few years??? That doesn't matter. They have tutorials and webinars to help you with everything.

They have a dozen librarians on staff to help you utilize their large library to best meet your needs. Have no idea how to format a paper in APA or MLA format??? That doesn't matter... They have a tutorial and a template for you. Not sure if your Reference List is on point? Send it to a librarian for some advice.

I'm telling you, this University is amazing!

One of the best parts is, the accessibility. GCU uses an online platform called Loud Cloud. I was worried about this going in. There is no ap like there is with Canvas. I had never heard of it before. It was possible based on this, I was making a huge mistake right?

Wrong!

Up to this point, I have not experienced any issues at all with accessibility. Has there been a few minor hiccups? Sure, of course there has. Honestly though, that is to be expected with anything.

The faculty has been more than willing to help with anything I need. My teacher automatically offered to send me any class documents if I had issues finding something. She is very quick to respond to any questions I have about navigating the platform.

Grading...

It's still early, but this process has been fantastic. I have had experiences where you are waiting practically until the end of the quarter to receive a grade on a single assignment. This has not been like that at all. Don't quote me on this, but I believe GCU has a policy in place that gives teachers a four business day turn around on grading. This is a game-changer for me. I'm not going to lie. I get so stressed waiting for a final grade on an assignment some times.

I will leave this post here. I will explain more another day. If you are considering going back to school and you don't know where to go... I would absolutely encourage you to check out Grand Canyon University. They are a private school. There tuition is not much different than that of an in-state school. Check out some of their videos online, visit there website, or chat with an enrollment counselor. What have you got to lose? Nothing! That's what. You do have everything to gain. I promis you that.

Until next time friends

The skinny on blind people blind dating

Are you a sighted person wondering if blind people date? Do they stay with in the blind community? Or, do they branch out into the world of the cited? No matter how they date. The blind community has much XPerience with blind dating… pun intended lol

Another new interesting dynamic to the land of blind dating, is the new and wide spread phenomenon of online dating. It has opened a whole new door for the disabled community. It has allowed them to meet all kinds of new people they may not have otherwise had the chance to encounter. As some of you already know, I myself have embarked on an online dating journey. It wasn't intentional in my case. I did not seek comfort at eHarmony, mashed.com or one of those other fishy sites. Not that there is anything wrong with these of course. I simply wasn't looking for love when it came directly in front of me and struck me hard like a Mack truck. It was kind of rude actually, I wasn't even looking. Where is the respect?

Sometimes you find love when you least expect it. There is no need to be afraid of this. Embrace it! Don't give up on it! I thought about it for a second, and tell my boyfriend clued me in to reality. Love knows no boundaries. It is not aware of the true definition of distance. The heart wants what it wants.

Anyway, back to the topic at hand.

Many blind people date other blind people. There may be many theories to this. I personally think it can be a good idea for some. It allows two people to come together that have many things in common. They know the inns and outs, ups and downs and all other directions of blindness. They will understand when others may not be able.

Up until I met my current boyfriend on the playing the blind card Facebook page, I also only dated sighted people. This wasn't necessarily a choice. It was mostly lack of options. The town I live in doesn't have any other blind people my age. 

As absurd as it sounds, when I met my boyfriend Ryan, it didn't occur to me to even attempt to date a Nother blind person. It seems silly to me. I figured, I should be looking for someone who can see, can drive, and therefore better the situation that I was in before I met him.

A few of my friends and family told me how Insein the prospect of this theory was. You are a hypocrite! They scolded me right and left.

They were right. I totally knew they were right. The problem was, my heart had already been hurt several times. Yes, I admit it. I was and probably am still a little, a woman scorned. That's right, I've been through a lot. It's taking me a long time to admit that, but it is true.

In retrospect, that is probably the main reason I was so jaded about getting into a new relationship. It really wasn't anything to do with the fact that we are both blind. Instead, with the fact that my heart was still drying. You see, I had just recently applied the crazy glue and duct tape. I had actually been single for quite a wild. But only recently decided to even think about having my heart exposed even a little. That didn't mean I wanted to date. It just meant I was open to the idea of meeting someone new.

And then there came Ryan. He of course is Mr. wonderful! I never expected to meet him. I thank God every day that I did however. He has completely changed my life for the better. He makes me every day want to be a better person.

He is a smart ass just like me. Which of course, I love! What he doesn't think of, I do and vise versa. It is a perfect blind match in heaven! I would not have it any other way. I have decided to adopt a new mantra… blind dating is the new black…

I have decided to explore the prospect of blind dating more and more on this blog, on the Facebook page, and especially on my YouTube channel. I look forward to having more conversations with you about this topic. I plan to open up with you a lot soon. Ryan has even agreed to talk with me on the YouTube channel about it too! I am really excited about that. I have also been talking with other blind friends on Twitter and on Skype about joining me in this venture as well. I will keep you posted as more develops on this.

If you are interested in being interviewed through Skype in an audio only interview for the YouTube channel, please feel free to find me on Twitter or on Facebook and let me know either in a private message or by leaving me a comment. I will get back to you as soon as I possibly can. I look forward to hearing from as many of you as possible. It will be fun to get to know all of you and inform the world in the process.

As always, thank you for reading… And remember… Look before you leap