I am 16 years old. I was born prematurely in July 1991. I have been blind all my life; I have just a little light perception. My parents are from India and we strongly and proudly hold on to our Indian traditions.

Half of my life, I know Heidi Musser, who came to my school in second grade to teach me Braille reading and writing. It is because of her and her mother Erika Musser that I love to read books in Braille.

Presently, I am a junior at Niles North High School (NNHS) in Skokie, IL. I love to attend NNHS, because I enjoy total social integration with non-disabled students. I feel lucky that can participate on a regular basis in PE classes.

All along, Heidi tried to get me “hooked” for triathlon training. But not until this year (2007) I discovered the joy of working out at our Leaning Tower YMCA, Niles, IL, where we meet twice weekly for workouts. YMCA trainer Patrick Trakas is my personal trainer.

My cousin Chintan Patel, who is a doctorial student for Pharmacy at the University of Illinois in Chicago, is my guide for 5 K races. We are a good team, because we work well together and train together.

Through the efforts of Heidi and her mother, the Leaning Tower YMCA has generously extended to Israel Antonia and me a full complimentary one-year membership.

We meet twice weekly with Jorge Barron, Heidi’s Chicago-based triathlon guide, at the Musser home for Family Night and Sunday Brunch after work-outs. Jorge, a C Different guide and an Ironman himself, enjoys coaching us. We generally have robust table discussions and I enjoy being moderator for domestic and world news. As a group, we also have expanded into regular book discussions, for which Heidi and I read the books in Braille.

I hope that after high school, I will go to college. I hope that after I get my Bachelor’s Degree in broadcast journalism, with minors in political science or literature, I will work on getting a Master’s Degree at the Illinois Center of Broadcasting.

I think that it is important for many blind people like myself to train and work out, so we live happy, healthy lives. I am hoping that we will get more people, who are blind, involved in CDifferent with not just training, but also book discussions.