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My interests, history, hobbies, activities and links to websites that are relevant to me can be found on this website.
Here you can read the story of my life. I am trying to keep this story readable. But some things need further explaining and if I were to integrate that all into this story, we would have a book by the time we're done...
This is why I have decided on one main story and special subjects that need further explaining will have their own subsections. you could see them as "further-reading" sections, in case you might want to know more.
I hope you will enjoy this story.
the first years of my life we still used to live with my grand parents. That would seem fun, and most of the time it was. Of course our home was not so very large and with many people in it, sometimes felt crowded.
At the age of 6 it was time for me to visit a special school for the blind. This Boarding school was not really a fun place to be, and I was glad that I was allowed to leave after 2 years. That's when I returned to Roermond and the school there, which was a lot more fun.
My sister Angela and I always used to have a lot of fun together, playing both inside and outside and creating our own fantasy stories.
Once I reached the age of 13 I was old enough to change schools and I went to secundary school. It was not as much fun anymore and I spent a lot of time, most of my day, to study. I often felt alone and emotionally unhappy.
After spending my time at the Loo Erf, I decided it was time to find a Study and I found myself a place to live in the town Deventer, where I have lived for 9 years.
during my time at the Loo Erf, I got to know many people and at first they all seemed to be my friends. Over the years I have learned that it's unlikely to have a very large group of friends. I see it that I have many acquaintances that I really like to talk to, but only a smaller group of friends. My first 2 really good and important friends were Phil and Dagmar (Dagmar will from now on be called Alicey, her preffered nickname). A while after that I got to know Marielle. In 2005 Cathy entered my life and we have had many wonderful times with her since.... Friendships have been found and lost and most of them have been a wonderful experience, although sometimes it was not so easy. Besides that, there have been several friends from the USA that I have either never met, or only met them once. these friendships have contributed to my life just as much, although it was and is sometimes difficult because of the distance and time differences.
Besides my study I also did voluntary work, from 1998 until the beginning of 2001 for the committee for blind and visually impared students, and from early 2001 til mmid 2002 for the youth committee for the blind and visually impared. My job was to organize fun activities like special weekends, workshops and such.
In october 1998 Phil, Alicey and a woman named Jolanda started a band, which is nowadays known as Phyality. I joined this band in may 1999 and it's been a lot of fun and excitement.
In the year 2002 Alicey and Phil married and finally moved into their new and own home, after having lived several years at the Robert Coppes Foundation,, another place where people are encouraged to learn how to live by themselves with their visual disability. From the moment they moved into their new home, my visits to them have increased, not only in frequency but also in duration. We have had a lot of fun together with all our hobbies, the band, writing our own stories etc...
After living for 9 years in my nice little apartment in Deventer, things started to change around me. the area where I lived was never really so pleasant. Not that I was directly bothered by it, I enjoyed my little home, my little corner of the world. But whenever my parents or friends came to visit me, they would tell me how the area was degrading. Finally, in 2006, it became clear that the hhousing co-operation wanted to do something about this, and their idea was to completely break down the entire area, including my apartment building, and start from scratch to rebuild everything in a new way, with better quality homes than before, trying to get all the people who were messing up the area out of there. that meant I had to leave. I was already for some time thinking about leaving or staying,I was never so sure about it, but I guess that's when I felt it was time to leave. Oh, believe me, I could have stayed several months longer, or requested a new home in Devnter, but it didn't feel right, and so in December 2006 I left my apartment, with a heavy heart, and until now I still live with my parents, temporarily, trying very hard to find a new home.
I have been trying for several months to find a job. this was pretty challenging and there were a few things complicating this, so in the end I decided not to continue this. My job possibility, that I really would have liked to have, would have been for an organization called Bis Bis. Instead I will devote my time to my hobbies and interests, including this website. I will try to find a home, that is, I guess, one of the most important future plans.
My new home will be in Roermond, in the Tegelarijveld, where I think I will have the perfect conditions for living on my own. An apartment with 2 bedrooms, grocery store, bakery, bank, chemist, drugstore, chinese restaurant, snackbar, bus stop and a nice area to walk with Cindy all very close at hand. Sounds to me like the perfect location. All I have to do is wait for my turn.
And I will also always stay devoted to spending time with friends, and keeping up with my groups.So far the story of my life until now. I hope you enjoyed reading.
(Written on august 17th 2008)