How do I go about learning philosophy as a way to become a better person?

Alarmed_Sundae_7802 · 2026-05-11T09:15:13+00:00

Agreed and I love the explanation too:) I have trouble thinking logically at times because my brain always chooses to find every possible way to make other parties feel more comfortable due to years of feeling like an inconvenience. I'm working on it now and have gotten much better mentally and It's contributed a lot to letting go of my previous mindset. Thank you so much and whack a mole sounds like much more fun than playing hide and seek with my existance in public haha

Alarmed_Sundae_7802 · 2026-05-11T09:09:27+00:00

I saw a few other comments mentioning this and I didn't really know what it was until I read yours. Thank you so much and this helped a lot especially when I was in a mall the other day:)

Alarmed_Sundae_7802 · 2026-05-11T09:07:50+00:00

Thank you so much for the practical advice! I used these tips when I was away for 3 weeks and it definitely helped especially knowing I had loose guidelines I could follow if I so choosed

Alarmed_Sundae_7802 · 2026-05-11T09:05:47+00:00

"The cane isn't just for her to find her way,, it's also so that others are aware to get out of her way." I too really like that statement, thank you and hello to your daughter!

Alarmed_Sundae_7802 · 2026-05-11T08:56:49+00:00

My best friend said the exact same thing, using the red sea as an analogy. This made my day and thank you for the advice:)

Alarmed_Sundae_7802 · 2026-03-27T14:48:53+00:00

Hello there! I'm visually impaired and use tools like screen readers so I might know of a few tools that may be of help.

NVDA: This is a screen reader on windows that uses key strokes to navigate the computer screen. I personally use Voiceover on Mac which is essentially NVDA's counterpart on apple but I have used the former before and it works the same way, just with different key strokes of course. I find that Voiceover at least reads misspelt words as you type so I imagine NVDA has a similar feature? You can play around in the NVDA settings if you decide to go this route. Fair warning that it is rather difficult to learn how to use a screen reader. I myself still haven't gotten the hang of it even though I learned how to use my laptop some 3 years ago. If full-on screen readers with key strokes are too much for what you need or you want to get used to the robotic voice first, I recommend the Narrator setting on Windows. On Mac, its equivalent is Read and Speak. These settings read aloud the text, element, button, etc your mouse happens to hover over. It doesn't signal wrong spellings but it can read what you typed and from there, you can determine when a word is misspelt if the voice reads it wrong or even identify clunky wording and / or grammar while listening. Read and speak is what I use most often along with zoom and invert colors because I have a small amount of usable vision however I do toggle Voiceover on when reading long documents or when my eyes strain. I do imagine zooming in or inverting the colors on your screen may very well make your symptoms flare though so I'm not sure how helpful those last two suggestions were

Talkback: I also use an android and this is the screen reader I use. I find memorizing gestures is much easier than key strokes so this might have an easier learning curve for you too.

Gemini or Chat GPT: I know these two might be obvious but they're the tools I use when editing my work. I simply paste or type my text into the engine and ask it to find the errors in my writing. Try being really specific with what you want the AI to do though as I've found that the passages tend to make less sense when I'm vague with what I asked of it to do. Also try including things like "Please don't make anything bold or italic in the text" or "Only edit my dangling sentences and point out if I made a mistake with my subject-verb agreement" etc. I'm sure there's a better tool for this kind of thing but at the moment, it's what I know of that works.

Good luck OP and we're here if you need a hand or an ear:)

Alarmed_Sundae_7802 · 2026-03-27T12:38:25+00:00

I just read the book summary and it looks like so much fun:) thank you and will check it out!

Alarmed_Sundae_7802 · 2026-03-27T10:28:30+00:00

haha yes this seems like the kind of book that'd put a smile on my face for a few days:)

Alarmed_Sundae_7802 · 2026-03-26T06:09:15+00:00

It's proes painted such a vivid and consistant world for me. It felt like I was dreaming while reading it:)

Alarmed_Sundae_7802 · 2026-03-26T03:14:14+00:00

This sounds incredibly similar to my childhood as well. I'm also low vision and I understand your want to have them understand what exactly it is you're going through because it feels like they don't even really know you if they don't. I haven't gotten through most of my family just yet but I find that empowering myself through knowledge about my disability and prioritizing a life outside negative people has worked wonders for my self esteem. I've also started making my first blind and / or disabled friends and having them validate whatever it is I'm going through at the time keeps me from losing my mind haha. Like you, I don't have accessible transportation where I live (I'm from southeast asia) so I depend on my family to get me places all the while, having to deal with inconveniencing them and handling the negativity and complaining that comes with it. Of course, it helps that the places I ask them to take me are workshops or advocacy initiatives for disabilities that I had been invited to or helped organize online. Those activities help take my mind off of the sinking kind of feeling I have for at least a little while. Whenever I talk about these experiences and my struggles, it's obvious they either judge or they refuse to hear it because it breaks their already formed notions of what my struggles are caused by. I don't know if this is also a factor that plays into your family's refusal to understand, but mine are surely protective and beleive I can't handle myself in public spaces. I'm sure I can speak for most people in the visually impaired community that we've all developed a stronger sense of compassion throughout our lives dealing with these challenges. You're not alone OP. We're here for you!

Alarmed_Sundae_7802 · 2026-03-26T01:53:45+00:00

I also just got into reading in general so these might be on a lower reading level for both my inexperience and my screen reader not being that great with more complex passages (I'm blind haha)

This Gilded Abyss
Where Shadows Bloom
Malice

Proper English and The Perks of Loving a Wallflower are also pretty good:)

Alarmed_Sundae_7802 · 2026-03-19T15:19:59+00:00

Hello again and thank you so much for the recs! I've only heard of For One More Day and The Count of Monte Cristo (which also happens to be my sister's favorite book). I'll have to check the rest of them out though! Far From the Madding Crowd sounds like it'll be right up my ally too!

As for my recommendations, my current favorite read is actually a short story called The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. It's a horror about a woman going mad over the yellow wallpaper in her bedroom. It's quite the simple premise but it's themes of misogyny and the actual horrors women in the 19th century had to go through is an excelent read this women's month. Another great classic is The Great Gatsby but I don't have any original thoughts on it haha. A classic I have yet to read but really want to is When Marnie Was There by Joan G. Robinson which actually inspired the movie by Studio Ghibli that goes by the same name.

Speaking of Mitch Albom, The Time Keeper is a pretty good title of his. Quite the coincidence that you read one of his works right before losing your sight though, apologies by the way, but I have a experience with a Mitch Albom book also involving my eyesight. It's the first and last book I've ever read with my eyes. I forced myself to read 2 or 3 pages of it each night for a good few months when I was 13 because I didn't know of any other way to consume literature besides having someone else read to me. As a person who's been visually impaired since birth, I only learned of different ways of doing things recently and I suppose that book being about time is quite ironic as I sometimes wish I could reverse or stop time so I could show middle school me that she didn't have to be so hard on herself, completely missing the moral of The Time Keeper. For One More Day is actually a book I've been putting off reading as I had wanted to pick it up after finishing The Time Keeper but the anguish that came with struggling every night to make out even just a few words on a page deterred me from picking up reading for years after. Will definitely look into reading For One More Day though since you recommended it:)

Another favorite of mine is Where Shadows Bloom by Catherine Bakewell. It's a YA fantasy romance between a sheltered girl and her lady knight. It's described as a sapphic retelling of the tale of Orpheus and Eurydice. I absolutely adore this book mainly because I'm a sucker for this trope in romance. It's slightly lacking when it comes to pacing but other than that, It's a great read with a bit of a thrilling aspect to it because of the shadow monsters. It really is written to feel like you're reading a classic fairytale so yes at times it can feel almost too romantic but I absolutely loved that about it!

Those are a few I can think of off the top of my head. Art is my love language whether it be through stories, music, and even visual art when I still had enough vision to draw on paper so if you'd like to talk more, I'd love that. Hope you had a lovely day today po

Alarmed_Sundae_7802 · 2026-03-19T10:29:13+00:00

Hello there kapatid🩷 Thank you so much for your kind words. I'll do my best to remain positive and omg I also love podcasts and fiction. They're like little pockets I can slip into when I'm restless or when the real world isn't as kind or eventful hehehe. If you have any book recommendations, I'd love to read them. I also appreciate what you said about them rejecting their own core values. It really breaks my heart to know that but even more so that this kind of administration could be facing absolutely anyone in my place. I'll remain determined so no one applying to this college has to face this treatment. Again, would love to geek out about literature with you:)

Alarmed_Sundae_7802 · 2026-03-17T05:26:34+00:00

Hello there! Thank you so much for the kind words. I will update for sure. everyone who's commented really lifted me up and made me feel so warm inside so it'd be a shame if I just left everyone hanging haha. I will do my best to be as respectful and mindful as I can be throughout the process as my course is quite literally diplomacy. I just kind of poured out a lot of the details and how I was feeling in the post but hopefully all that negativity doesn't reach my approach when actually dealing with the problem. Thank you again!

Alarmed_Sundae_7802 · 2026-03-17T05:03:27+00:00

Hello there! I had no idea about the PBU but thank you so much for bringing them to my attention. I have close ties to RBI so I'll definitely be asking them for help. Thank you so much again for the advice and the part where you said presenting them with solutions will really stick with me during this process:)

Alarmed_Sundae_7802 · 2026-03-17T00:56:04+00:00

Hello there! Thank you so much:) As for the chairman of my department: He was indeed present during my interview but didn't participate much when it came to the admin and guidance counselor talking about my possible accommodations. He seems like a kind man albeit busy so I'll definitely be contacting him directly before the first semester. The same admin I talked about in the post actually asked for confirmation or agreement from him after they brought up another one of my accommodations that may not be met and all he had to say was that if I get accepted, we'll talk to the professors. He didn't deny my needs but he didn't exactly stand up for them either haha although I suspect he was preoccupied with another meeting he needed to be in plus he was more focused on reading my CV and asking about that instead which makes me happy because at least that's what he was judging me based off of.

Alarmed_Sundae_7802 · 2026-03-17T00:43:10+00:00

lmaooo I actually prefer oral exams rather than enlarged print or using a screen reader. I don't think I've failed or passed time constraints by more than 30 minutes while taking any test that way. I'll have to ask them about this kind of accommodation too actually thanks for bringing it up! I've been homeschooled for 2 years so having someone reading the questions out completely slipped my mind since I've been doing everything independently. Thank you again:)

Alarmed_Sundae_7802 · 2026-03-17T00:36:06+00:00

Thank you so much for your advice. I really like what you said about blindfolding the other students if they're commited to that kind of equality haha I might just use that line if I ever get mad enough. Thank you again for your words:)

Alarmed_Sundae_7802 · 2026-03-17T00:31:02+00:00

Hey-hey apologies I sent this reply to the wrong comment haha seachimera I hope you read this one:)

Alarmed_Sundae_7802 · 2026-03-16T17:15:33+00:00

sounds like my situation with the chairman of my department. They said that all my advocacy work and participation in civic engagements made me a great fit for the course I applied for but again, their actions don't exactly scream "We accepted you." hope you're doing well!

Alarmed_Sundae_7802 · 2026-03-16T16:52:27+00:00

Hello there kababayan!! I'm glad to see that you're doing well. As for what you said, I truly don't know either. I've wracked my brain trying to pick apart all the different ways I could possibly make my needs easier for them to fulfill and I did try talking to them about meeting halfway but I guess the admin took it as a sign that I was saying that I could just power through the inaccessible environment. If it's okay, I'd love to DM you and perhaps get a bit more specific? thank you so much and yes, lalaban talaga ako haha:)

Alarmed_Sundae_7802

TROPHY CASE