Here’s a classic Would You Rather: “Would you rather be blind your whole life or go blind gradually?” For Lindsey Blankenship (Siegel), she didn’t get to choose, but she has a rare eye disease that is slowly making her blind. As a teenager, she skied regularly; as a 41-year old mom, she has to look carefully at her feet to make sure she doesn’t walk into her 4-year old son. When your peripheral vision drops to 3 inches in either direction and you’re effectively night blind, it’s almost like your skiing days were a dream.

OK, so here’s another one: “If you were going blind gradually, would you rather spend your seeing days going to the Seven Wonders, or watching youth baseball and building a website for people with other ailments to tell their story?” For Lindsey, she chose the latter and happily so. Between mom-ing and soaking up her son’s baseball games, Lindsey has chosen to create ThrivewithDisability.com, a storytelling platform that connects the differently-abled and shares the unvarnished stories of their journeys with the world. 

One last one: “If you were gradually going blind, would it better to live with high hopes or low expectations?” Powerfully, Lindsey has chosen both because she believes it’s the only way to live her ‘normal’ life. Her challenge to us is do the same.