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Speaker 1: I'll get at and welcome to another installment of the show.

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Speaker 1: I hope you're bloody great. It's it's Monday. It's Monday Arvo.

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Speaker 1: It's just hit the AVO. It's thirty three past the

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Speaker 1: point where it becomes the ARVO. Tiffany and Cook and

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Speaker 1: Matt are on the call. We'll get to mad in

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Speaker 1: a moment. But the girl over there with the biceps

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Speaker 1: who likes punching people in the face and was quite

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Speaker 1: chuffed on the weekend because someone asked her if she

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Speaker 1: was about to go in a bodybuilding show. So the ego,

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Speaker 1: So the whole Dalai Lama thing, the whole kind of

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Speaker 1: serenity humility thing from India, that's well and truly gone.

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Speaker 2: Hey, I think it's the della alarmaed biceps. Like he'd

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Speaker 2: give them a little flex as well. I reckon he

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Speaker 2: give them a little flex.

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Speaker 1: Imagine that if the Dellai Lama got on the fucking

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Speaker 1: on the gear to get it on the gear, settle down.

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Speaker 1: I didn't say you were anyone, but imagine if you

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Speaker 1: got on and yeah, imagine. I don't think that's going

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Speaker 1: to happen, though. I think he's a little bit more

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Speaker 1: evolved than you and I. How are you, Tiffany? Very well?

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Speaker 2: Thank you.

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Speaker 1: Has your Monday morning been?

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Speaker 3: It's been good.

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Speaker 2: Monday morning's always a busier morning with clients, but I

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Speaker 2: had a little gap this morning, so I got to

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Speaker 2: do a little bit of training, a little bit of

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Speaker 2: fun training myself in between, and I like Mondays.

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Speaker 3: They're busy, but they're good. I don't know.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, good, that's good. What about you, Matt, how's

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Speaker 1: your morning been? Sunshine?

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Speaker 4: Yeah, a heartskit A. Tiffany, my morning's been great. It's

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Speaker 4: sunny here in Horsham, so it's a hot one. Yeah,

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Speaker 4: being busy, a couple of zoom calls this morning, but

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Speaker 4: I actually had some time to go for a little

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Speaker 4: walk before it heats up too much, so that was great.

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Speaker 3: So no, loven't it? And just on the bysets, Tiffany.

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Speaker 4: When I met you in person for the first time

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Speaker 4: at the mine Ash Health goer, you know, I've got

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Speaker 4: four percent vision in one life six percent of the

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Speaker 4: other eye, and I could see your bysets, So yeah,

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Speaker 4: you're kicking goals.

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Speaker 1: I feel validated. Wow, wow, you do. So the guy

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Speaker 1: who can hardly see has seen your biceps and been impressed.

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Speaker 1: She'll be out of control all day. Now, mate, you

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Speaker 1: shouldn't have told her that. Now.

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Speaker 3: I saw a tiff, and I'm like, this is a

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Speaker 3: woman you don't want to mess with.

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Speaker 1: That is you're not totally wrong with that. But she

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Speaker 1: can be either intimidating or a big basket case in

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Speaker 1: the corner just sucking her thumb. I mean she alternates

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Speaker 1: between those two.

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Speaker 2: Well, that was that was a red carpet event, so

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Speaker 2: I was I was very much the second option there.

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Speaker 2: I was a bit out of my comfort zone.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, did you wearing what did you well?

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Speaker 1: What did both of you? I can't imagine. Sorry, man,

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Speaker 1: I mean, you know, like you're an impressive young man,

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Speaker 1: but red carpet. What did you both? What did you

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Speaker 1: both wear? Tiff? Did you have to rent something or

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Speaker 1: did you look right in the back of the cupboard.

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Speaker 3: I had to go out shopping.

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Speaker 2: I bought myself a silky black jumpsuit, so it was

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Speaker 2: you know, I mean, you can get away with a jumpsuit.

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Speaker 2: I did have a mini breakdown about frocking up, so

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Speaker 2: I met in the middle and I think I threw

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Speaker 2: some red lippyon if I remember correctly.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, like a grown up. But what about you, Sunshine?

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Speaker 1: Just a black suit, just like a straight up pumpin.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, I went and bought it a new tux seed

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Speaker 4: over myself, so I treated myself. I thought, Oh, first event,

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Speaker 4: Crown Casino got to look the part. So no, I

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Speaker 4: got the full tucks, the shiny shoes, the whole kittenkaboodle.

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Speaker 3: I felt like I was at the brown Low Medal.

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Speaker 3: So it was a great night.

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Speaker 1: That's hilarious. Has anyone ever told you you'd be quite

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Speaker 1: good on radio? You've got a good voice, Matt.

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Speaker 4: I have been told I've had a great face for

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Speaker 4: radio for many years, so who knows. I actually did

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Speaker 4: a radio course with Vision Australia earlier this year, so

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Speaker 4: that was really exciting. And yeah, jumped on a few

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Speaker 4: podcasts over the years. Me and a mate used to

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Speaker 4: do a podcast years ago, so I have done the

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Speaker 4: speaking for quite a while.

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Speaker 3: But yeah, I have heard that in.

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Speaker 4: The past, for sure, but it's usually always been the

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Speaker 4: term you've got a good face for radio.

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Speaker 1: Tell them to fuck off. Man, you're a good look.

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Speaker 1: I wish I wish I looked as good as you look, Sunshine.

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Speaker 1: Don't worry, Oh so do we call you Matt, Mattie, Matthew,

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Speaker 1: is it just Matt.

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Speaker 4: Just call me Matt. Yeah, you can call me Matt.

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Speaker 4: You can call me whatever. Really, but yeah, I do

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Speaker 4: double trouble to tease, but yeah.

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Speaker 1: Anything but late for dinner. You can call me. Tell

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Speaker 1: us give my audience a little bit about the Matt

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Speaker 1: de Gricci story, like just to give them an insight

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Speaker 1: into who you are and a little bit of your backstory.

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Speaker 4: Mate, Yeah, for sure, So get everyone. And my name

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Speaker 4: is Matt Griucci. I'm currently twenty eight years of age

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Speaker 4: and I am a blindness and disability advocate. I also

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Speaker 4: do some subcontracts consulting with lived experience experts, so that's

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Speaker 4: really exciting and it's all in the disability and inclusion space.

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Speaker 4: But how I got there was when I was about

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Speaker 4: six to seven. It was probably just in the early

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Speaker 4: ages of grade three grade four at school. My parents

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Speaker 4: first started noticing I was bringing my school work back

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Speaker 4: home and I didn't complete it in class. So I

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Speaker 4: wasn't completing my assignments in class, and I also was

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Speaker 4: looking a lot closer.

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Speaker 3: At it than what my peers were.

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Speaker 4: So that was met with a little bit of skepticism,

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Speaker 4: but we went to some appointments. I was given bifocal glasses,

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Speaker 4: misdiagnosed with dyslexia, you name it.

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Speaker 3: I had the work.

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Speaker 4: So this went on for probably about the best part

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Speaker 4: of two years, maybe around eight a months.

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Speaker 3: And this was lots of different appointments.

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Speaker 4: So in a nutshell of the disease that I have

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Speaker 4: is Stargarts, which I'll get to in a sec but

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Speaker 4: at the time when I was diagnosed, it was quite

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Speaker 4: hard for the standard optometrists just to have a look

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Speaker 4: in the back of someone's eye and go, okay, that's

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Speaker 4: Stargart's disease. So it was quite hard to sort of pinpoint.

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Speaker 4: So that's where I had a few misdiagnosises. But anyway,

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Speaker 4: going on, about a few months later, we went to

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Speaker 4: this appointment and there was this optometrist and he goes, nah, nah,

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Speaker 4: I reckon, you're just faking it.

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Speaker 3: You're a bit of an attention seeker.

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Speaker 4: Wouldn't really take me seriously, didn't want to do a

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Speaker 4: half assed test in his opinion.

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Speaker 3: I don't know where he got that from.

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Speaker 4: And yeah, he turned and he looked at my mum

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Speaker 4: and he said, well, if your son can't read this.

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Speaker 4: He must be a retarde. When I was about eight

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Speaker 4: years old and I've just been labeled there a retide

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Speaker 4: by someone that you kind of look up to, someone

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Speaker 4: that's going to help you and you fix this vision.

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Speaker 4: Because at the time, I kind of thought, yeah, i'd

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Speaker 4: have a few appointments, I'll get this eye problem sorted out,

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Speaker 4: and then I'll go about my way.

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Speaker 3: I'll keep watching the Simpsons, I'll keep living me life.

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Speaker 4: I didn't really actually think that there would be any

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Speaker 4: weight to what would actually happen in the future, so

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Speaker 4: that was a pretty confronting experience.

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Speaker 3: But I still hadn't had my diagnosis yet. And then

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Speaker 3: I did.

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Speaker 4: Meet a lovely fresh Outer University ophthalmologist. She had just

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Speaker 4: studied Stargarts disease, which is the disease that I have.

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Speaker 3: So that is.

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Speaker 4: How I actually found or got my diagnosis. I went

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Speaker 4: to an optometrist and she found the yellow like flaky

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Speaker 4: specks in the back of my eye, which is a

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Speaker 4: build up of vitamin A. So, in very simple terms,

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Speaker 4: my Stargarts disease is affected by the build up of

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Speaker 4: vitamin A. So I'm sure we've all heard over the

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Speaker 4: years the expression eat your carrots that are really good

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Speaker 4: for your eyes. I'm sure we've all heard that one. Well,

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Speaker 4: actually not in my situation. So my eyes can't break

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Speaker 4: down vitamin A that builds up it turns into this

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Speaker 4: yellow like bugger substance in the back of my eye

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Speaker 4: and that's what kills off the cells. But anyway, got

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Speaker 4: the diagnosis eventually, and it was really like at that

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Speaker 4: time a switch turning off. That's when the visual degeneration

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Speaker 4: started to happen quite rapidly. And I really did shut

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Speaker 4: down because I saw around me in the very early

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Speaker 4: days when I did go to a few different excursions

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Speaker 4: and experiences that were meant to kind of get you

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Speaker 4: prepared for losing vision, and I noticed there was this

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Speaker 4: bubble wrap or a gold star approach. It was kind

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Speaker 4: of like, oh, here's your gold staff for participation, but

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Speaker 4: not really getting the real go at things. And that

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Speaker 4: really scared me because I just wanted to have a

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Speaker 4: normal crack at things. I just wanted to do what

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Speaker 4: I wanted to do and not sort of be sugarcoated.

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Speaker 4: So I actually, yeah, really doubled down and hid my disabilities.

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Speaker 4: So throughout my school schooling years up until the age

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Speaker 4: of probably sixteen, when I couldn't really hide on disability anymore.

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Speaker 4: It was the age where everyone's getting their license, getting

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Speaker 4: a taste of.

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Speaker 3: That freedom and go and driving.

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Speaker 4: And here I was, and people are asking me, well,

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Speaker 4: why don't you have your l plates matter? Why aren't

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Speaker 4: you doing this? And initially I'm not ashamed and saying it.

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Speaker 4: Initially I would actually just make up white lives. I'd

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Speaker 4: just say, oh, I just haven't got men l plates yet,

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Speaker 4: or I just haven't done it yet, or you know,

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Speaker 4: I'll get there eventually. But it all stemmed from shame,

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Speaker 4: Like I felt really guilty and shameful for having something

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Speaker 4: qute wrong with me that I didn't actually put on myself.

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Speaker 3: But that's how I felt at the time.

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Speaker 4: I really had this victim mindset that I was a

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Speaker 4: bad person, having something wrong with me that was never

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Speaker 4: my first, like my choice in the beginning in the

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Speaker 4: first place. And that was really my mindset. Really was

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Speaker 4: like a light's on, but no one's home kind.

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Speaker 3: Of deal, and it really was. It was sugarcoated, it

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Speaker 3: was the bubble wrap.

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Speaker 4: It was all that sort of stereotypical stuff that really

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Speaker 4: scared me.

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Speaker 3: And yeah, it shut down.

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Speaker 4: It was kind of like the I guess in a way,

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Speaker 4: it's like the five stages of grief, like get into

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Speaker 4: the acceptance of my blindness, because early on I was

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Speaker 4: very very much in denial, so I would not believe

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Speaker 4: that I was going blind.

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Speaker 3: And you know, I would pick up a can of

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Speaker 3: you know, I could.

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Speaker 4: Be a can of soft drink, or it could be

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Speaker 4: a bottle of water, and I would turn it over

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Speaker 4: to the back of the label, and I would really

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Speaker 4: strain my eyes, almost to the point where I'd give

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Speaker 4: myself a migrain and like tears in my eyes. I

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Speaker 4: would strain that much. And it was kind of to

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Speaker 4: trick myself into thinking that if I could strain enough

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Speaker 4: and be able to see one of the words, oh, yep,

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Speaker 4: I'm fine, I don't have Stargut's disease, and then this

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Speaker 4: big bad dream would be over. That's how my brain

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Speaker 4: functioned at the time. So I went through the denial

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Speaker 4: and then you know, obviously you kind of realize, wow,

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Speaker 4: I am still losing my vision, Like this isn't going away.

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Speaker 3: So you go through, you.

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Speaker 4: Know, the angry stage, really angry and resentful and feel

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Speaker 4: like the woe is me? This happened to me, this

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Speaker 4: is so unfair, and then you kind of, you know,

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Speaker 4: you do go into the bargaining stage where you kind

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Speaker 4: of try and like trick yourself and you're like, Okay, well,

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Speaker 4: if I do this, then I'm still independent, or if

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Speaker 4: I do that, and then I would kind of then

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Speaker 4: actually not ask for the supports that I needed. So

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Speaker 4: in turn, it still made me struggle a bit because

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Speaker 4: I couldn't actually absorb or take in the information on

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Speaker 4: the whiteboard or the blackboard at school. And that was

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Speaker 4: so bad that even a teacher on my last day

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Speaker 4: of school didn't even know that I was legally blind

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Speaker 4: and losing my vision.

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Speaker 3: That's how good I wasn't hiding my disability.

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Speaker 4: So I got through all those stages very very poor

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Speaker 4: mental health.

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Speaker 3: So it actually led us to it.

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Speaker 4: It was a family style intervention that around the age

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Speaker 4: of yeah, getting your license.

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Speaker 3: Saying a load of freedom.

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Speaker 4: I was really a shell of the person that I

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Speaker 4: was as a kid, and yeah, it was a family

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Speaker 4: style intervention. I got the canceling sessions. I think I

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Speaker 4: got ten free canceling sessions that was at the time,

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Speaker 4: which you could get through your GP. And honestly that

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Speaker 4: it was such a shift in mindset. One of the

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Speaker 4: things I remember from that time, and it's funny because

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Speaker 4: I don't actually drive a car, but my cancelor got

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Speaker 4: me to draw a picture of me in the driver's

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Speaker 4: seat taking the power back the steering wheel and taking

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Speaker 4: control of my own life and what I.

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Speaker 3: Wanted to do. And it was all a metaphor, but

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Speaker 3: it was so powerful.

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Speaker 4: And I actually even got back into drawing because that

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Speaker 4: was a skill that I guess I hadn't lost. I

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Speaker 4: was still quite artistic and creative, but I just stopped

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Speaker 4: doing it once I started to lose my vision because yeah,

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Speaker 4: prior to diagnosis, as a youngster, very very very active,

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Speaker 4: very creative, arts and crafts, all that stuff, and I

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Speaker 4: really shut down and just stopped doing all of the

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Speaker 4: things that I enjoyed as in my teenage years. So

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Speaker 4: getting to that step of acceptance was probably the biggest

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Speaker 4: thing for me, being able to accept my disability, because

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Speaker 4: then that gave me the power to not have the fear,

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Speaker 4: not have the anxiety of thinking almost holding onto that

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Speaker 4: hope of a cure, because that really was the thing

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Speaker 4: that yet shut me down. I would google Stargart's disease.

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Speaker 4: I would be google and research and it was all

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Speaker 4: with the sort of mindset of denial. It was me

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Speaker 4: wanting to get rid of this so then I could

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Speaker 4: go back to living my old life, rather than just

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Speaker 4: accepting it and being like, Okay, this is a deck

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Speaker 4: of cars. I've gotten life, and this is what I

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Speaker 4: want to do with it. So yeah, in a nutshell

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Speaker 4: getting myself to a place like that. I've started to

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Speaker 4: share my story. I do keynote presentations at schools and

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Speaker 4: stuff like that, and it's all happened pretty unconsciously because

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Speaker 4: I never thought I would ever do speaking.

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Speaker 3: I never thought that. I never put myself out there

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Speaker 3: like that. It was actually a.

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Speaker 4: Teacher in it might have been year eleven at school

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Speaker 4: and we were doing a high school musical and he goes,

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Speaker 4: you need to be the MC in this musical. You

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Speaker 4: need to be the disc jockey, and I pushed back.

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Speaker 4: I didn't want to do it. I remember, right up

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Speaker 4: to the last training sessions before we went live with

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Speaker 4: the musical, I even was full of anxiety.

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Speaker 3: I hadn't really learned my lines and stuff.

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Speaker 4: But I went ahead and I did the musical and

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Speaker 4: I did really well, and I thought, oh wow, I

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Speaker 4: might be able to do a bit of speaking. And

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Speaker 4: then this was still when I hadn't told anyone about

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Speaker 4: my blindness. No one knew accept me initial family and

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Speaker 4: made him best made Ben. Apart from that, yeah, no one,

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Speaker 4: So kept going on with that, and then it was

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Speaker 4: actually Foundation Fighting Blindness that reached out wanted me to

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Speaker 4: make a short video. I did it, not really thinking

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Speaker 4: that it would have the impact that it did at

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Speaker 4: the time.

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Speaker 3: So this has going back quite a few years ago.

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Speaker 3: This is before TikTok.

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Speaker 4: This is back in the blog post days of the

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Speaker 4: early Facebook. So at the time I did a video

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Speaker 4: for the how You See a campaign where I explained

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Speaker 4: my condition, just the little tips and tricks that I'm

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Speaker 4: using in my life to get by, and it kind

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Speaker 4: of went viral at the time or for what it was.

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Speaker 4: And yeah, before I knew it, I was going over

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Speaker 4: to America and meeting the two blind brothers who also

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Speaker 4: have Stargarts disease, which was awesome because apart from meeting

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Speaker 4: one other person in Australia the Stargarts and my sister

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Speaker 4: who has been diagnosed in recent years, I haven't actually.

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Speaker 3: Met too many people with the same disease that I've got.

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Speaker 4: So to go over there and meet two people that

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Speaker 4: I look up to, that you know, have just kicked

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Speaker 4: goals in life. They've been on the Ellen DeGeneres Show,

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Speaker 4: and now you know, I'm doing a presentation sort of

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Speaker 4: thing alongside them. That was an incredible experience and it

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Speaker 4: really launched what I do now. So MDV that's what

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Speaker 4: I do now, that's my brand. It's Matt de Bridge

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Speaker 4: Vision and we hyphenated it. And it started out just

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Speaker 4: as a blog post.

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Speaker 3: I was on the way.

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Speaker 4: I was on the way to an ac DC concert

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Speaker 4: back in twenty sixteen, and I was still working at

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Speaker 4: a retail shop at that time. So I'd worked in

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Speaker 4: retail for about ten years. So I never let my

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Speaker 4: blinder stop me. I was always working, I was always hustling.

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Speaker 4: But I just wanted something more. I didn't want to

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Speaker 4: just be, you know, to check out chicks, so to speak.

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Speaker 4: I wanted to do something more and real, non tokenistic,

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Speaker 4: disability and inclusion training is my vibe, that's my niche.

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Speaker 4: So that's the direction that I headed in. And yeah,

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Speaker 4: it started off as a clothing brand. It really did,

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Speaker 4: selling a few T shirts and you know, I would

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Speaker 4: pack all the orders up, and before I knew it, it

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Speaker 4: did start a little bit of a movement. I started

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Speaker 4: the campaign what makes You Visionary coincided with the ability

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Speaker 4: not disability, and everything centered around Yeah, taking the power

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Speaker 4: back and the focus away from putting all that energy

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Speaker 4: onto a disability and instead focusing on ability.

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Speaker 3: Because that's where I've achieved the best.

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Speaker 4: Things in my life is when I haven't really focused

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Speaker 4: about my blindness. I don't wake up in the morning

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Speaker 4: and think, oh wow, I'm blind or I can't see,

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Speaker 4: and yeah, I might bump into a wall or make

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Speaker 4: my morning cup of coffee with orange juice instead of milk.

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Speaker 4: But like, I still go, I do that quite often.

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Speaker 4: I do that more than I'd like to admit, I'll

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Speaker 4: tell you. But yeah, that's where the biggest achievements have

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Speaker 4: happened in my life is not yet not living my

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Speaker 4: life conducted by the thought and the label of oh

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Speaker 4: I'm disabled or I'm blind, and it's all focused on

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Speaker 4: yet the ability. And that's not to say that it

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Speaker 4: takes away from equity, Like we all need the supports

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Speaker 4: to be able to thrive in life. It's not to

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Speaker 4: take away from anything because I still use heaps of technology.

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Speaker 4: I'd be lost without it. I use triple tag zoom

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Speaker 4: on any computer device. I use screen readers. I've recently

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Speaker 4: partnered with a company in the US called Iris Vision,

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Speaker 4: and they do headset technology with screens really close to

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Speaker 4: your eyes. And because it's so close to my eyeballs,

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Speaker 4: I can actually see quite well. So I use technology.

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Speaker 4: I use so many devices so I can be able

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Speaker 4: to do the things that.

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Speaker 3: My peers do.

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Speaker 4: But yeah, it's all with a focus on ability, and

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Speaker 4: you get that, you get the job done. So in

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Speaker 4: a nutshell, a very drawn out nutshell, that's sort of

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Speaker 4: what I do.

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Speaker 1: I don't think you know what. I don't think you

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Speaker 1: know what a fucking nutshell is. Mane, let's be honest.

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Speaker 1: But no, that's amazing, that's amazing, No, honestly, all silliness. Guide.

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Speaker 1: You're an inspiration. It's great, it's great.

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Speaker 4: And then yeah, I had the privilege of meeting Tiffany

378
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Speaker 4: back in May, so that's been fantastic.

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Speaker 2: Got to be the highlight, doesn't it.

380
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Speaker 3: Oh, definitely one of them for sure. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: Well mate, well mate, you are indeed in inspiration. All right,

382
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Speaker 1: let me circle back and ask you a few things.

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Speaker 1: Thank you for that synopsis that overview that It was

384
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Speaker 1: great though, because I love it when I can sit

385
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Speaker 1: back and somebody can just share their story very, very

386
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Speaker 1: efficiently and effectively. All right, So tell me about tell

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Speaker 1: me about the intervention. So like when we think of interventions,

388
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Speaker 1: we often think of somebody who's struggling with addiction and

389
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Speaker 1: the family comes in and goes, listen, Champ, this is

390
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Speaker 1: not working. You need to get your shit together, or

391
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Speaker 1: we need to get you in rehab or some kind

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Speaker 1: of therapy. What tell me about the intervention. What led

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Speaker 1: your family to do that, What was happening, and how

394
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Speaker 1: did you feel about that and respond to that, and

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Speaker 1: what did the intervention. I mean, you told us a

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00:18:00,960 --> 00:18:04,320
Speaker 1: bit about sessions, but tell us about that point in time.

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Speaker 3: Yes, yeah, for sure.

398
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Speaker 4: So the reason that started it is my mental health

399
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Speaker 4: was just bottom of the barrel. It was full depression,

400
00:18:12,320 --> 00:18:15,600
Speaker 4: full anxiety, and probably also OCD mixed in with that.

401
00:18:15,760 --> 00:18:18,919
Speaker 4: So I was very anxious and just very depressed. And

402
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Speaker 4: I also really turned to food at that time as

403
00:18:21,600 --> 00:18:25,000
Speaker 4: a copy mechanism. I really sort of ate myself almost

404
00:18:25,040 --> 00:18:27,679
Speaker 4: towards an early grave. So at the time when the

405
00:18:27,720 --> 00:18:30,840
Speaker 4: family intervention style thing did happen. I was almost one

406
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Speaker 4: hundred and fifty kilos. In fact, i'd stopped buying myself

407
00:18:33,359 --> 00:18:34,360
Speaker 4: because the scale.

408
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Speaker 3: Wouldn't even weigh me. So that's something I'm quite proud of.

409
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Speaker 4: Over recent years, I've really changed my lifestyle in health ways, because, yeah,

410
00:18:41,440 --> 00:18:45,080
Speaker 4: throughout my teenage years I was very morbally obese, and

411
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Speaker 4: at that point I was just I was very sick.

412
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Speaker 4: I was living on three different pills a day just

413
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Speaker 4: to slow down my heart rate. So that's pretty scary

414
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Speaker 4: to be, you know, eighteen years old or seventeen years

415
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Speaker 4: old and to be on three medications just to slow

416
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Speaker 4: your heartbeat. Was also taking i think two medications at

417
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Speaker 4: the time for blood pressure, which is just not a

418
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Speaker 4: life to be living. So I was incredibly anxious. I

419
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Speaker 4: was incredibly depressed, and the sort of well is me

420
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Speaker 4: mentality about my blindness, and then I guess, yeah, the comfort.

421
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Speaker 4: The comfort for that was the food, so it was

422
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Speaker 4: the overeating. So it was a combination of so many things.

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Speaker 4: It was definitely, yeah, some health struggles and definitely mental health.

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Speaker 4: But the conversation initially looked like a conversation around the

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Speaker 4: dinner table and of course, when you know my parents,

426
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Speaker 4: When my family voiced their concerns and they wanted the

427
00:19:36,359 --> 00:19:39,160
Speaker 4: best for me, of course I pushed back. I didn't

428
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Speaker 4: want to have the call with the cancer. I didn't

429
00:19:41,160 --> 00:19:43,439
Speaker 4: want to you know, I'm fine all this and that

430
00:19:43,520 --> 00:19:46,240
Speaker 4: everyone else is the issue. I'm not the problem. Everyone

431
00:19:46,280 --> 00:19:48,600
Speaker 4: else is the issue. That's very much how I saw it.

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Speaker 4: But anyway, I did persevere, and it wasn't It wasn't

433
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Speaker 4: straight away. It probably took me three or four weeks

434
00:19:54,920 --> 00:19:57,280
Speaker 4: of me pushing back and then maybe letting them in

435
00:19:57,320 --> 00:19:59,160
Speaker 4: a little bit, and then pushing back a little bit more.

436
00:19:59,560 --> 00:20:02,880
Speaker 4: But actually I did go to my first appointment, and

437
00:20:03,440 --> 00:20:06,960
Speaker 4: quite instantly I did feel very comfortable with the counselor.

438
00:20:07,080 --> 00:20:09,600
Speaker 4: She's an amazing woman, and even to this day I

439
00:20:09,640 --> 00:20:13,600
Speaker 4: still do have conversations and catch up, so probably more

440
00:20:13,640 --> 00:20:15,640
Speaker 4: so as a friend now and sort of the similar

441
00:20:15,680 --> 00:20:19,200
Speaker 4: fields and careers that we were in, but definitely an

442
00:20:19,200 --> 00:20:22,720
Speaker 4: incredible experience and the ten free sessions that worked out,

443
00:20:22,720 --> 00:20:25,000
Speaker 4: and I definitely I couldn't recommend it more.

444
00:20:25,040 --> 00:20:26,280
Speaker 3: If it's still a thing that is.

445
00:20:26,240 --> 00:20:29,680
Speaker 4: Offered to people, it really just allowed me to unpack

446
00:20:30,080 --> 00:20:32,640
Speaker 4: some of the mindset shifts so you know, I didn't

447
00:20:32,680 --> 00:20:35,159
Speaker 4: have the knowledge or the skills to even understand that

448
00:20:35,240 --> 00:20:37,359
Speaker 4: some of the reasons I was acting was because of

449
00:20:37,400 --> 00:20:40,639
Speaker 4: my anxiety or maybe some of the thoughts and the

450
00:20:40,640 --> 00:20:42,960
Speaker 4: opinions that I had for possibly even being called a

451
00:20:43,000 --> 00:20:45,800
Speaker 4: retard or the four eyes or being bullied in school. Like,

452
00:20:46,160 --> 00:20:48,000
Speaker 4: there were so many different things that I didn't even

453
00:20:48,080 --> 00:20:49,960
Speaker 4: have knowledge or ways to unpack.

454
00:20:50,480 --> 00:20:51,320
Speaker 3: So being able to.

455
00:20:51,240 --> 00:20:54,520
Speaker 4: Sit there and go, hmm, I don't actually have to

456
00:20:54,840 --> 00:20:57,560
Speaker 4: believe that, I don't have to assign meaning to that thought.

457
00:20:57,600 --> 00:20:58,680
Speaker 3: I can just let it pass.

458
00:20:59,080 --> 00:21:02,840
Speaker 4: Go about my dad because I guess, yeah, definitely definitely.

459
00:21:02,880 --> 00:21:05,480
Speaker 4: Back in my early teenage years and leading up to

460
00:21:06,160 --> 00:21:10,600
Speaker 4: my crisis, essentially I would get latched on to every

461
00:21:10,720 --> 00:21:13,639
Speaker 4: thought and it would snowball and I would Yeah, I

462
00:21:13,680 --> 00:21:16,199
Speaker 4: was a hypochondriact. I was always concerned that I was

463
00:21:16,280 --> 00:21:19,199
Speaker 4: dying too. Yeah. I would always tell myself that I

464
00:21:19,240 --> 00:21:21,760
Speaker 4: was dying of lakemia, dying of a brain shreamer.

465
00:21:21,840 --> 00:21:23,560
Speaker 3: There were so many things that it.

466
00:21:23,480 --> 00:21:25,800
Speaker 4: Was really bad, that was so bad that I actually

467
00:21:26,000 --> 00:21:27,600
Speaker 4: there was one day I just had a little bit

468
00:21:27,640 --> 00:21:29,720
Speaker 4: of dirt on my arm. Now, obviously I do have

469
00:21:29,800 --> 00:21:31,640
Speaker 4: low vision too, so I might not seeing it as much.

470
00:21:31,680 --> 00:21:33,760
Speaker 4: But I went up to someone and I was like,

471
00:21:33,960 --> 00:21:36,480
Speaker 4: look at this bruise on my arm. I've got cancer.

472
00:21:36,600 --> 00:21:39,639
Speaker 4: I'm gonna die. Like that's how hysterical I was. And

473
00:21:39,680 --> 00:21:40,600
Speaker 4: someone just white the.

474
00:21:40,520 --> 00:21:42,399
Speaker 3: Dirt off my arm and they go, Matt, that's dirt.

475
00:21:43,200 --> 00:21:46,639
Speaker 4: So I was really, like I said earlier, it was

476
00:21:46,680 --> 00:21:48,000
Speaker 4: really like lights were.

477
00:21:47,880 --> 00:21:49,320
Speaker 3: On but no one was home.

478
00:21:49,400 --> 00:21:51,920
Speaker 4: Like I was just on autopilot of fight and flight

479
00:21:51,960 --> 00:21:52,720
Speaker 4: mode for sure.

480
00:21:53,200 --> 00:21:56,680
Speaker 1: That Matt, do you think thank you? Do you think that?

481
00:21:57,840 --> 00:22:01,439
Speaker 1: Because like you're a fucking maye in communicator dude, Like

482
00:22:01,680 --> 00:22:03,680
Speaker 1: I'm sure you've been told that, and yeah, you can

483
00:22:03,720 --> 00:22:05,560
Speaker 1: talk well and you've got a good voice.

484
00:22:05,280 --> 00:22:05,440
Speaker 4: But.

485
00:22:07,119 --> 00:22:10,920
Speaker 1: Your ability and I'm sure you've you've refined it over time.

486
00:22:11,000 --> 00:22:13,960
Speaker 1: But for a twenty eight year old navigating the world

487
00:22:13,960 --> 00:22:16,320
Speaker 1: with a disability and doing what you do and also

488
00:22:16,440 --> 00:22:20,000
Speaker 1: with lots of great abilities on top of your one disability,

489
00:22:20,000 --> 00:22:24,400
Speaker 1: but like you're an amazing communicator and share of thoughts

490
00:22:24,480 --> 00:22:27,560
Speaker 1: and ideas and storyteller. Do you think the fact that

491
00:22:28,920 --> 00:22:32,560
Speaker 1: your vision is so limited that all your other senses

492
00:22:33,040 --> 00:22:38,679
Speaker 1: and skills have kind of become better than Like I'm thinking,

493
00:22:38,840 --> 00:22:41,800
Speaker 1: I wonder if this bloke could see normally, if it'd

494
00:22:41,840 --> 00:22:45,680
Speaker 1: be such a great communicator because you have to rely

495
00:22:46,000 --> 00:22:51,040
Speaker 1: so much on listening, whereas we can. I always say

496
00:22:51,040 --> 00:22:53,440
Speaker 1: to people, and this is an indictment on me, I say,

497
00:22:53,520 --> 00:22:56,000
Speaker 1: pay attention to a little bit of what people say

498
00:22:56,440 --> 00:22:58,400
Speaker 1: and all of what they do. You know, like, I'm

499
00:22:58,440 --> 00:23:01,400
Speaker 1: more interested in what I see than what I hear sometimes,

500
00:23:01,680 --> 00:23:04,480
Speaker 1: But you don't have that luxury. I feel like the

501
00:23:04,560 --> 00:23:07,639
Speaker 1: fact that you can't see what TIF and I and

502
00:23:07,720 --> 00:23:11,199
Speaker 1: most of our listeners can see. You've had developed this

503
00:23:11,359 --> 00:23:16,200
Speaker 1: like almost auditory superpower where you can here but also

504
00:23:16,359 --> 00:23:18,440
Speaker 1: see with your ears, if you know what I mean.

505
00:23:18,600 --> 00:23:19,760
Speaker 3: No, I one hundred percent.

506
00:23:19,760 --> 00:23:21,880
Speaker 4: And I love that you said that, because, in all honesty,

507
00:23:21,920 --> 00:23:24,160
Speaker 4: if I did have twenty twenty vision, I don't think

508
00:23:24,200 --> 00:23:26,879
Speaker 4: I would be as an effective as a communicator. I

509
00:23:26,920 --> 00:23:29,040
Speaker 4: don't even think I would be doing anything in the

510
00:23:29,119 --> 00:23:31,720
Speaker 4: sort of what I'm doing right now. So I actually

511
00:23:31,760 --> 00:23:34,200
Speaker 4: love that I've got Stargus's disease. I think it makes

512
00:23:34,200 --> 00:23:35,880
Speaker 4: me the person that I am today. I would never

513
00:23:35,960 --> 00:23:38,760
Speaker 4: change it for the world. So that's definitely a contrast

514
00:23:38,840 --> 00:23:41,560
Speaker 4: to years and years ago, for sure. But as although

515
00:23:41,600 --> 00:23:43,760
Speaker 4: it does, it is meant to be a myth on

516
00:23:43,880 --> 00:23:46,960
Speaker 4: paper that you know, any other sense is enhanced because

517
00:23:47,000 --> 00:23:49,719
Speaker 4: you lose one. But for the people that I've spoken

518
00:23:49,760 --> 00:23:52,720
Speaker 4: to and from my own experience, I do think that

519
00:23:52,800 --> 00:23:55,000
Speaker 4: it is true. Like I definitely pick up on energy

520
00:23:55,119 --> 00:23:58,000
Speaker 4: so much more than I get I think other people do.

521
00:23:58,160 --> 00:24:00,199
Speaker 4: Like so when I walk into a room or if

522
00:24:00,200 --> 00:24:04,480
Speaker 4: I'm doing a presentation, I'm not seeing the facial expressions,

523
00:24:04,480 --> 00:24:06,919
Speaker 4: I'm not seeing the audience, so I'm picking up on

524
00:24:07,000 --> 00:24:08,760
Speaker 4: vibe ships and then I'm thinking, Okay, well this is

525
00:24:08,760 --> 00:24:10,439
Speaker 4: where I need to go with my story or this

526
00:24:10,520 --> 00:24:13,159
Speaker 4: is where I need to go now. So I'm a

527
00:24:13,160 --> 00:24:15,320
Speaker 4: big believer, and people will forget what you said, people

528
00:24:15,359 --> 00:24:17,639
Speaker 4: will forget what you tell them, but they'll never forget

529
00:24:17,640 --> 00:24:20,080
Speaker 4: how you made them feel. So I'm a big believer

530
00:24:20,160 --> 00:24:23,000
Speaker 4: in that, and I guess as far as the communication goes,

531
00:24:23,640 --> 00:24:26,199
Speaker 4: it would be Yeah, me ten thousand hours.

532
00:24:26,280 --> 00:24:27,240
Speaker 3: I'm a big believer in that.

533
00:24:27,280 --> 00:24:29,800
Speaker 4: You've got a craft that put your ten thousand hours in.

534
00:24:30,119 --> 00:24:33,919
Speaker 4: I've been doing this since twenty sixteen, probably on a

535
00:24:33,960 --> 00:24:37,960
Speaker 4: professional scale since twenty twenty. So yeah, working towards you

536
00:24:38,000 --> 00:24:40,959
Speaker 4: always got more to learn. I will never ever leave

537
00:24:41,160 --> 00:24:43,560
Speaker 4: a talk or I'll never have a conversation with someone

538
00:24:43,600 --> 00:24:46,520
Speaker 4: and think, oh wow, I nailed that. If anything, I'm

539
00:24:46,520 --> 00:24:49,040
Speaker 4: always going through and thinking how can I make that better?

540
00:24:49,119 --> 00:24:50,800
Speaker 3: Or how can I learn more with that? Like I'm

541
00:24:50,840 --> 00:24:51,800
Speaker 3: always wanted to get better.

542
00:24:51,840 --> 00:24:54,119
Speaker 4: I never sit back and think, oh, yeah, that was

543
00:24:54,160 --> 00:24:57,560
Speaker 4: bloody awesome. So I feel like that's a good quality

544
00:24:57,600 --> 00:25:00,240
Speaker 4: to have, probably as well, because I'm always thinking and

545
00:25:00,440 --> 00:25:03,720
Speaker 4: I'm maybe not like, not that great, so then I'm

546
00:25:03,760 --> 00:25:07,480
Speaker 4: trying to even become better, which is a good still skill.

547
00:25:08,480 --> 00:25:12,720
Speaker 4: But yeah, definitely, I definitely have what's it cold when

548
00:25:12,720 --> 00:25:16,040
Speaker 4: it's hearing, but you can kind of hear what you

549
00:25:16,040 --> 00:25:19,560
Speaker 4: want to not hear. There's a word for its, selective hearing.

550
00:25:19,600 --> 00:25:22,120
Speaker 4: Good one tip. Yeah, I definitely have selective hearing. Don't

551
00:25:22,160 --> 00:25:25,480
Speaker 4: get me wrong, but I can definitely hear conversations that

552
00:25:25,560 --> 00:25:27,880
Speaker 4: happening in other rooms where other people would just go.

553
00:25:27,840 --> 00:25:29,200
Speaker 3: Completely off the top of their head.

554
00:25:29,520 --> 00:25:31,920
Speaker 4: A few years ago, I was actually on a trip

555
00:25:31,960 --> 00:25:34,440
Speaker 4: with a bunch of friends and I could just yeah,

556
00:25:34,520 --> 00:25:36,520
Speaker 4: hear the conversation in the other room and I just

557
00:25:36,560 --> 00:25:38,640
Speaker 4: made a funny joke and they were blown away to.

558
00:25:38,600 --> 00:25:40,080
Speaker 3: Think that, how did you hear that?

559
00:25:40,119 --> 00:25:42,160
Speaker 4: Are you like ears drop and I'm like, no, honestly,

560
00:25:42,200 --> 00:25:44,439
Speaker 4: I'm just sitting here, but I can hear it. And

561
00:25:44,520 --> 00:25:47,240
Speaker 4: I just think that's because I'm not giving much energy

562
00:25:47,240 --> 00:25:50,000
Speaker 4: to my eyes. I really it's hard to explain because

563
00:25:50,040 --> 00:25:53,560
Speaker 4: people do think I still really use my vision and

564
00:25:53,560 --> 00:25:55,600
Speaker 4: what I can see, but a lot of the time

565
00:25:55,720 --> 00:25:58,159
Speaker 4: I am so on autopilot. We're just getting from A

566
00:25:58,280 --> 00:26:01,040
Speaker 4: to B, and I kind of know my bearings and

567
00:26:01,080 --> 00:26:03,240
Speaker 4: I really do switch my eyes off. I'm not really

568
00:26:03,280 --> 00:26:07,240
Speaker 4: paying much attention to anything that's coming through, and it is.

569
00:26:07,720 --> 00:26:11,560
Speaker 3: It's all on sound and vibes, honestly, sound and energy.

570
00:26:12,520 --> 00:26:16,320
Speaker 1: I think also, like you said that, maybe technically your

571
00:26:16,359 --> 00:26:19,760
Speaker 1: hearing doesn't get literally better, but I think what you

572
00:26:19,920 --> 00:26:24,359
Speaker 1: do with your hearing changes because you're not distracted by

573
00:26:24,400 --> 00:26:31,480
Speaker 1: seeing shits that like you are hanging. It's like if

574
00:26:31,520 --> 00:26:34,160
Speaker 1: I go I had this epiphany a few years ago, mate,

575
00:26:34,160 --> 00:26:35,640
Speaker 1: because I sit in front of a lot of people

576
00:26:35,680 --> 00:26:38,359
Speaker 1: and talk to a lot of people, and I realized that,

577
00:26:38,480 --> 00:26:41,320
Speaker 1: you know, there's a difference between being a good talker

578
00:26:41,359 --> 00:26:44,480
Speaker 1: and a great communicator. Right, A lot of people can talk,

579
00:26:45,080 --> 00:26:49,679
Speaker 1: but they're terrible at connection and communication and creating a

580
00:26:49,720 --> 00:26:55,159
Speaker 1: great interpersonal experience, and I realized that I wasn't terrible

581
00:26:55,200 --> 00:26:56,920
Speaker 1: at my job, but I don't think I was great,

582
00:26:57,640 --> 00:27:03,080
Speaker 1: And I probably over talked a little bit, like I

583
00:27:03,119 --> 00:27:05,680
Speaker 1: think for me, if I'm coaching someone, if I'm one

584
00:27:05,680 --> 00:27:08,160
Speaker 1: on one, it sull be about ten percent me ninety

585
00:27:08,160 --> 00:27:11,560
Speaker 1: percent them in terms of the talk time, right, but

586
00:27:11,640 --> 00:27:14,359
Speaker 1: it was probably more like thirty seventy, so too much.

587
00:27:14,400 --> 00:27:18,920
Speaker 1: But also I realized that I wasn't always fully present.

588
00:27:19,119 --> 00:27:21,920
Speaker 1: And I can't remember what precipitated it, but I had

589
00:27:21,920 --> 00:27:25,080
Speaker 1: this moment where I went, how I'm become going to

590
00:27:25,080 --> 00:27:28,720
Speaker 1: become much better at this is by you know, when

591
00:27:28,760 --> 00:27:31,199
Speaker 1: that hour starts or whatever the session is. You know,

592
00:27:31,280 --> 00:27:36,840
Speaker 1: it's like done over two thousand podcasts, right with this

593
00:27:36,880 --> 00:27:38,439
Speaker 1: show and some other shows that I did.

594
00:27:38,480 --> 00:27:41,679
Speaker 4: It's amazing effort, your kicking goals, many thanks.

595
00:27:41,440 --> 00:27:45,040
Speaker 1: Man, thanks, but just being able to go all right,

596
00:27:45,200 --> 00:27:49,200
Speaker 1: and I'm talking with Matt at twelve thirty, and at

597
00:27:49,240 --> 00:27:52,520
Speaker 1: twelve thirty, I'm fully present. I'm not looking at my phone,

598
00:27:52,560 --> 00:27:55,840
Speaker 1: I'm not thinking about other things. I'm not distracted like

599
00:27:56,200 --> 00:27:58,800
Speaker 1: you do your twelve or fifteen minute monologue at the start,

600
00:27:58,840 --> 00:28:02,439
Speaker 1: which I fucking loved, but I'm fully present, I'm writing notes,

601
00:28:02,560 --> 00:28:05,760
Speaker 1: I'm listening. And I think when you whatever it is,

602
00:28:05,800 --> 00:28:07,960
Speaker 1: whether it's with your hearing or your vision or some

603
00:28:08,080 --> 00:28:08,800
Speaker 1: other sense, but.

604
00:28:10,000 --> 00:28:14,200
Speaker 5: You you can kind of fine tune that, you can

605
00:28:14,240 --> 00:28:16,560
Speaker 5: develop that and you block out the shit that you

606
00:28:16,640 --> 00:28:19,640
Speaker 5: don't need to hear or pay attention to, and then

607
00:28:19,880 --> 00:28:23,560
Speaker 5: like really focus and even though you're technically you're hearing

608
00:28:23,680 --> 00:28:27,080
Speaker 5: is not better, but you're actually hearing a lot more.

609
00:28:26,920 --> 00:28:30,880
Speaker 1: Because of what you're paying attention to. Is that right?

610
00:28:31,000 --> 00:28:32,000
Speaker 1: Or is that in the ballpark?

611
00:28:32,119 --> 00:28:34,880
Speaker 4: No, that's one hundred percent right, harps. And Also I'd

612
00:28:35,000 --> 00:28:38,080
Speaker 4: like to elaborate that when I'm listening to people talking, right,

613
00:28:38,200 --> 00:28:42,720
Speaker 4: rather than my eyes catching the visual cues, I'm actually appy.

614
00:28:42,880 --> 00:28:46,120
Speaker 4: So if anything, rather than using my eyes, I'm also

615
00:28:46,280 --> 00:28:49,120
Speaker 4: painting a picture to make the story that that individual

616
00:28:49,200 --> 00:28:52,320
Speaker 4: is telling me even clearer. So I do think I

617
00:28:52,440 --> 00:28:57,040
Speaker 4: sort of subconsciously extremely actively listen and I am painting

618
00:28:57,040 --> 00:28:59,560
Speaker 4: the picture of the sort of missing pieces of that puzzle.

619
00:28:59,600 --> 00:29:01,000
Speaker 3: So in my brain.

620
00:29:01,640 --> 00:29:04,200
Speaker 4: But because yeah, I definitely believe when I am in

621
00:29:04,200 --> 00:29:06,480
Speaker 4: a lot of situations, I'm just there. I'm in the room,

622
00:29:06,720 --> 00:29:09,600
Speaker 4: I'm with the person. I'm not really seeing too much,

623
00:29:09,680 --> 00:29:11,720
Speaker 4: and for what I can see, it's nothing to really

624
00:29:11,760 --> 00:29:14,440
Speaker 4: even yeah, because it's so blurry, I'm not really going

625
00:29:14,520 --> 00:29:16,560
Speaker 4: to put my energy towards that. So I do think

626
00:29:16,640 --> 00:29:19,840
Speaker 4: that allows me to be with people or to kind

627
00:29:19,840 --> 00:29:24,200
Speaker 4: of absorb more information than others, because sometimes it might

628
00:29:24,240 --> 00:29:26,640
Speaker 4: be a little bit overstimulating, so a little bit of

629
00:29:26,680 --> 00:29:29,400
Speaker 4: the information just goes over top of people's heads.

630
00:29:29,640 --> 00:29:34,600
Speaker 1: That Yeah, what how can I ask you? Just I'm

631
00:29:34,600 --> 00:29:37,360
Speaker 1: an exercise scientist. I'm interested in the height and the

632
00:29:37,360 --> 00:29:40,720
Speaker 1: physical health and all that shit. Right, So how tall

633
00:29:40,760 --> 00:29:41,920
Speaker 1: are you? Oh?

634
00:29:42,160 --> 00:29:45,600
Speaker 4: I think I would be like maybe one seventy centimeters.

635
00:29:45,600 --> 00:29:47,320
Speaker 4: I would have to like measure myself.

636
00:29:47,920 --> 00:29:51,719
Speaker 1: Okay, so yeah at one round one, at one fifty,

637
00:29:51,800 --> 00:29:53,520
Speaker 1: you're at one hundred and fifty kilos.

638
00:29:53,520 --> 00:29:56,000
Speaker 3: You're a very big boy, right, Oh yeah, yeah I was.

639
00:29:56,720 --> 00:29:57,200
Speaker 3: I would have been.

640
00:29:57,240 --> 00:29:59,760
Speaker 4: I classed myself and definitely the doctors classed me at

641
00:29:59,760 --> 00:30:00,160
Speaker 4: that time.

642
00:30:00,280 --> 00:30:03,600
Speaker 1: Is more but the obese. Yeah, and what did you

643
00:30:03,640 --> 00:30:06,040
Speaker 1: get down to? Because you look healthy and fit and

644
00:30:06,160 --> 00:30:07,720
Speaker 1: strong like, well.

645
00:30:07,640 --> 00:30:11,680
Speaker 4: I'm actually I'm probably about currently right now, I'm probably

646
00:30:11,720 --> 00:30:14,320
Speaker 4: about ten kilos heavier than what I would love to be.

647
00:30:15,200 --> 00:30:18,200
Speaker 4: I have been about ten kilos lighter than I am now,

648
00:30:18,240 --> 00:30:21,120
Speaker 4: which was around about eighty kilos. That was the fittest

649
00:30:21,160 --> 00:30:24,480
Speaker 4: I've been, So that was, yeah, probably my biggest weight loss.

650
00:30:24,880 --> 00:30:27,360
Speaker 4: And now I do hob around the ninety mark. My

651
00:30:27,400 --> 00:30:30,040
Speaker 4: body is comfortable there. But I did love it a

652
00:30:30,040 --> 00:30:32,160
Speaker 4: few years back when I did get down to eighty

653
00:30:32,240 --> 00:30:35,440
Speaker 4: because you know, I felt the rip this I'd ever been.

654
00:30:35,520 --> 00:30:37,360
Speaker 4: I was going to the beach without the shirt on,

655
00:30:37,440 --> 00:30:40,040
Speaker 4: and it was that was the first that was such

656
00:30:40,040 --> 00:30:42,600
Speaker 4: a big experience for me to be going to a

657
00:30:42,600 --> 00:30:45,360
Speaker 4: beach without me top on. Wow, that was massive for

658
00:30:45,440 --> 00:30:47,640
Speaker 4: me because I'd like never done that before. I was

659
00:30:47,640 --> 00:30:50,680
Speaker 4: always so self conscious of taking my shirt off. So yeah,

660
00:30:50,720 --> 00:30:53,280
Speaker 4: to be able to kind of be fit and feel normal,

661
00:30:53,400 --> 00:30:55,760
Speaker 4: just like, you know, in a normal body, that was amazing.

662
00:30:55,880 --> 00:30:59,760
Speaker 4: So yeah, but yeah, around eighty to ninety I sort

663
00:30:59,800 --> 00:31:02,080
Speaker 4: of now, but yeah, I'd like to get back there

664
00:31:02,120 --> 00:31:04,080
Speaker 4: for sure. I've got to pull we figure out, so

665
00:31:04,120 --> 00:31:05,960
Speaker 4: to speak, get me ars in the gear and get

666
00:31:06,040 --> 00:31:09,360
Speaker 4: running because I actually am planning to do run Melbourne

667
00:31:09,400 --> 00:31:11,760
Speaker 4: next year as well. So I did the five k

668
00:31:11,920 --> 00:31:13,760
Speaker 4: last year, I want to do the ten k this

669
00:31:14,120 --> 00:31:16,560
Speaker 4: year coming. So yeah, I got to get back into

670
00:31:16,600 --> 00:31:17,520
Speaker 4: running for sure.

671
00:31:18,480 --> 00:31:22,440
Speaker 1: Well, and so when you're running, like, how does that work?

672
00:31:22,800 --> 00:31:25,680
Speaker 1: How does that work? Do you run with a partner?

673
00:31:25,720 --> 00:31:28,040
Speaker 1: Do you just bump into shit constantly?

674
00:31:29,840 --> 00:31:33,920
Speaker 4: So I when I'm in locally, so when I'm back

675
00:31:33,920 --> 00:31:36,920
Speaker 4: home in Horsham, I know the surrounds of Horseham.

676
00:31:36,960 --> 00:31:38,920
Speaker 3: I've lived in our entire life, and I've had the

677
00:31:39,000 --> 00:31:40,080
Speaker 3: luxury also.

678
00:31:40,000 --> 00:31:42,920
Speaker 4: Growing up in town when I did have twenty twenty vision,

679
00:31:43,160 --> 00:31:45,440
Speaker 4: so I have great muscle memory of kind of where

680
00:31:45,480 --> 00:31:49,800
Speaker 4: things are. So I can quite comfortably go for a

681
00:31:49,880 --> 00:31:52,280
Speaker 4: run or go for a walk around our river because

682
00:31:52,320 --> 00:31:55,520
Speaker 4: it's got a nice pathway. It's quite nice, and I

683
00:31:55,520 --> 00:31:57,160
Speaker 4: can get myself from A to B pretty well.

684
00:31:57,160 --> 00:31:58,080
Speaker 3: They're unassisted.

685
00:31:58,480 --> 00:32:00,360
Speaker 4: If I was to go for a walk or a

686
00:32:00,440 --> 00:32:02,880
Speaker 4: run somewhere in the city or a suburb in Melbourne,

687
00:32:03,720 --> 00:32:05,960
Speaker 4: I yeah, especially if I was going for a run,

688
00:32:06,040 --> 00:32:08,200
Speaker 4: I would want to go with someone, Especially the first

689
00:32:08,240 --> 00:32:11,080
Speaker 4: few times. I wouldn't just sort of will and literally

690
00:32:11,200 --> 00:32:12,960
Speaker 4: just go for a run and see where I get to.

691
00:32:13,360 --> 00:32:16,120
Speaker 3: And I definitely still could, but I feel.

692
00:32:15,800 --> 00:32:17,440
Speaker 4: Like, yeah, if you wanted to do it on like

693
00:32:17,440 --> 00:32:20,560
Speaker 4: a professional level kind of thing and actually do it consistently,

694
00:32:20,920 --> 00:32:22,800
Speaker 4: I would like to sell up a routine with someone.

695
00:32:22,840 --> 00:32:26,320
Speaker 4: But yeah, around locally, Yeah, I know my bearings pretty well.

696
00:32:26,480 --> 00:32:28,239
Speaker 4: That's not to say I don't get lost every now

697
00:32:28,280 --> 00:32:30,280
Speaker 4: and then. Occasionally I kind of go off path and

698
00:32:30,280 --> 00:32:32,440
Speaker 4: I'm sort of in amongst the sticks and I think.

699
00:32:32,520 --> 00:32:34,480
Speaker 3: Oh, hold on, I think I'm a little bit shrew

700
00:32:34,520 --> 00:32:34,880
Speaker 3: with here.

701
00:32:35,320 --> 00:32:38,880
Speaker 4: It was actually funny too, because earlier this year I

702
00:32:39,000 --> 00:32:41,479
Speaker 4: was going for a run. Back when I did, it

703
00:32:41,520 --> 00:32:43,680
Speaker 4: was one hundred k away for Vision Australia, so it

704
00:32:43,720 --> 00:32:46,600
Speaker 4: was April, and I was running up towards and I

705
00:32:46,640 --> 00:32:49,040
Speaker 4: thought there was this big stick on the ground and

706
00:32:49,080 --> 00:32:50,600
Speaker 4: then as I ran over the top of it, I

707
00:32:50,600 --> 00:32:52,440
Speaker 4: saw it move. So it was actually a brown snake.

708
00:32:52,880 --> 00:32:55,080
Speaker 4: So that kind of wigged me out a little bit.

709
00:32:55,120 --> 00:32:56,960
Speaker 4: That was the first time I'd seen a snake that

710
00:32:57,080 --> 00:32:58,800
Speaker 4: close in the sort of wild.

711
00:32:59,440 --> 00:33:01,360
Speaker 3: But yeah, or.

712
00:33:01,320 --> 00:33:05,000
Speaker 1: More specifically, hadn't seen a snake. I've seen us seen

713
00:33:05,040 --> 00:33:08,760
Speaker 1: a sticky mate like in the old days. I don't

714
00:33:08,760 --> 00:33:11,240
Speaker 1: know if this is still a term, so excuse my ignorance.

715
00:33:11,360 --> 00:33:14,520
Speaker 1: I've got l plates on for this conversation because I

716
00:33:14,560 --> 00:33:19,160
Speaker 1: don't know is the term legally blind? Is that still

717
00:33:19,160 --> 00:33:19,600
Speaker 1: a term?

718
00:33:19,800 --> 00:33:21,800
Speaker 3: Yes, yeah, I still use it. That's how I refer

719
00:33:21,840 --> 00:33:22,960
Speaker 3: to myself quite often.

720
00:33:23,080 --> 00:33:27,480
Speaker 1: So what qualifies somebody to be legally blind? Like what

721
00:33:27,880 --> 00:33:30,640
Speaker 1: percentage of vision or how does that work?

722
00:33:30,760 --> 00:33:33,600
Speaker 4: Yes, so depending if you're in America or Australia, there's

723
00:33:33,640 --> 00:33:36,200
Speaker 4: different eye charts and different signals depend on what you are.

724
00:33:36,240 --> 00:33:39,480
Speaker 4: But essentially it's if you look at the eye chart

725
00:33:39,520 --> 00:33:43,320
Speaker 4: at an optometrist and you can't see the very big

726
00:33:43,520 --> 00:33:46,160
Speaker 4: top number. So if you can't see that sitting in

727
00:33:46,160 --> 00:33:50,360
Speaker 4: the optometrists chair from the distance you're sitting, that means

728
00:33:50,400 --> 00:33:53,560
Speaker 4: that you have lost significant vision and you're class legally blind.

729
00:33:53,640 --> 00:33:57,080
Speaker 4: So that essentially means you have twenty two hundred vision.

730
00:33:57,600 --> 00:34:00,520
Speaker 4: So that means that what someone could see often to

731
00:34:00,640 --> 00:34:04,080
Speaker 4: the distance from two hundred meters away, you would only

732
00:34:04,120 --> 00:34:06,120
Speaker 4: be able to see from twenty.

733
00:34:05,840 --> 00:34:08,000
Speaker 3: Meters away, and it would be a lot blurrier than

734
00:34:08,040 --> 00:34:09,920
Speaker 3: what someone with twenty twenty vision would see.

735
00:34:10,120 --> 00:34:13,279
Speaker 4: In America, they actually go by twenty sixty vision, so

736
00:34:13,320 --> 00:34:16,919
Speaker 4: they would say that sixty meters away, someone that could

737
00:34:16,920 --> 00:34:19,759
Speaker 4: see something off into the distance sixty meters you would

738
00:34:19,800 --> 00:34:21,280
Speaker 4: only be able to see.

739
00:34:21,120 --> 00:34:22,400
Speaker 3: From about twenty meters.

740
00:34:22,560 --> 00:34:27,040
Speaker 4: So that's the very baseline of legal blindness and then yeah,

741
00:34:27,040 --> 00:34:30,040
Speaker 4: you can still definitely continue to lose more vision after that.

742
00:34:30,600 --> 00:34:34,960
Speaker 4: But yeah, very few people are considered completely blind, which

743
00:34:35,160 --> 00:34:38,520
Speaker 4: that isn't actually the term. It's called NLP, so no

744
00:34:39,040 --> 00:34:43,080
Speaker 4: light perception, and that's when you have no vision whatsoever.

745
00:34:44,040 --> 00:34:46,000
Speaker 3: But yeah, that's probably.

746
00:34:45,719 --> 00:34:48,680
Speaker 4: Yeah, less than ten percent of people that are considered

747
00:34:48,920 --> 00:34:52,920
Speaker 4: yeah blind or legally blind would have no light perception.

748
00:34:53,120 --> 00:34:55,360
Speaker 4: So yeah, quite a lot of us will still see

749
00:34:55,360 --> 00:34:59,400
Speaker 4: some colors some light. But for me personally, if I'm outside,

750
00:34:59,440 --> 00:35:02,200
Speaker 4: I have to wear pretty dark sunglasses because yeah, it

751
00:35:02,239 --> 00:35:04,040
Speaker 4: look like I watched like a romcom or some mighty

752
00:35:04,120 --> 00:35:05,240
Speaker 4: sad movie for two hours.

753
00:35:05,320 --> 00:35:07,200
Speaker 3: My eyes just start crying in the sun.

754
00:35:08,880 --> 00:35:13,160
Speaker 1: If you and I were let's say, I don't know,

755
00:35:13,719 --> 00:35:16,839
Speaker 1: if we're in a room and I'm in front of you,

756
00:35:16,920 --> 00:35:19,560
Speaker 1: I'm three meters away from you, and it's a pretty

757
00:35:19,600 --> 00:35:23,440
Speaker 1: well lit room, what are you going to see?

758
00:35:23,880 --> 00:35:26,919
Speaker 4: So I would be able to see the color of

759
00:35:27,160 --> 00:35:30,600
Speaker 4: your shirt and pants, probably, I don't know if I

760
00:35:30,600 --> 00:35:33,520
Speaker 4: would be able to differentiate, Say, if you're wearing a

761
00:35:33,560 --> 00:35:36,480
Speaker 4: blue pair of jeans and a black shirt, my eyes

762
00:35:36,520 --> 00:35:39,480
Speaker 4: just might pick it up as a dark navy color

763
00:35:39,520 --> 00:35:41,480
Speaker 4: mixed together. So I might be able to see sort

764
00:35:41,520 --> 00:35:44,160
Speaker 4: of the shape of your body kind of thing. I

765
00:35:44,160 --> 00:35:46,399
Speaker 4: would be able to see the shape of your head.

766
00:35:46,440 --> 00:35:48,640
Speaker 4: But most people, when I look at their their face,

767
00:35:49,040 --> 00:35:52,200
Speaker 4: it usually is just sort of a mix of their yeah,

768
00:35:52,239 --> 00:35:54,799
Speaker 4: their skin color sort of mixed in. I can't see

769
00:35:54,880 --> 00:35:58,160
Speaker 4: sort of eyeballs or facial features.

770
00:35:57,680 --> 00:35:59,239
Speaker 3: Nose, mouth, that sort of thing.

771
00:36:00,120 --> 00:36:02,239
Speaker 4: I do see a little bit better out of my

772
00:36:02,600 --> 00:36:05,759
Speaker 4: peripheral vision. So something that is worth mentioning is that

773
00:36:05,800 --> 00:36:08,640
Speaker 4: the bulk of my blindness is my central vision.

774
00:36:08,760 --> 00:36:11,000
Speaker 3: So when I look directly on at.

775
00:36:10,920 --> 00:36:14,640
Speaker 4: People right in the face, so you know, respectfully, we

776
00:36:14,680 --> 00:36:17,040
Speaker 4: make eye contact with people when we speak to them.

777
00:36:17,320 --> 00:36:19,480
Speaker 3: So I still actually do that to this day.

778
00:36:19,520 --> 00:36:21,680
Speaker 4: I will look at people in the eye, but it's

779
00:36:21,680 --> 00:36:23,920
Speaker 4: only for the other person's benefits, so they think that

780
00:36:23,960 --> 00:36:26,279
Speaker 4: I'm respectful because I can't actually see when I look

781
00:36:26,320 --> 00:36:28,440
Speaker 4: at them in the eye that way direct on, I

782
00:36:28,480 --> 00:36:30,799
Speaker 4: would actually be better off kind of looking side on.

783
00:36:31,480 --> 00:36:34,200
Speaker 4: And I do see a little bit clearer out of

784
00:36:34,200 --> 00:36:37,319
Speaker 4: my peripheral vision, it's still not super clear. It's not

785
00:36:37,360 --> 00:36:39,680
Speaker 4: like twenty twenty, or I wouldn't be able to probably

786
00:36:39,680 --> 00:36:41,879
Speaker 4: tell someone, oh, you've got green eyes or you've got

787
00:36:41,880 --> 00:36:44,680
Speaker 4: blue eyes. I wouldn't be able to do that, but yeah,

788
00:36:44,680 --> 00:36:46,480
Speaker 4: it's a little bit better than looking dead on.

789
00:36:47,640 --> 00:36:49,239
Speaker 1: Well, if I want to give you any shit, I'm

790
00:36:49,280 --> 00:36:53,360
Speaker 1: going to stand straight in front of you for sure. Thanks, thanks,

791
00:36:53,440 --> 00:37:00,359
Speaker 1: thanks for the heads up. So let's just weel back

792
00:37:00,400 --> 00:37:03,160
Speaker 1: to the first time you went. I don't know if

793
00:37:03,200 --> 00:37:05,240
Speaker 1: it was the first time you went to an optometrist,

794
00:37:05,280 --> 00:37:09,200
Speaker 1: but I don't know what on earth would I mean.

795
00:37:09,239 --> 00:37:11,400
Speaker 1: I know you're not lying, I know it's true, but

796
00:37:11,440 --> 00:37:15,879
Speaker 1: I can't I almost can't believe that a medical professional,

797
00:37:16,400 --> 00:37:21,040
Speaker 1: an optimologist would say, would call you, would tell your

798
00:37:21,120 --> 00:37:25,319
Speaker 1: mum that you're a retard, because when you have a legitimate,

799
00:37:26,800 --> 00:37:32,080
Speaker 1: serious issue with your eyes, not only do they not

800
00:37:32,360 --> 00:37:37,200
Speaker 1: figure that out, they insult you. I mean, apart from

801
00:37:37,239 --> 00:37:41,279
Speaker 1: how that was for you, which was fucking horrible, and like,

802
00:37:41,520 --> 00:37:46,680
Speaker 1: I don't even understand how that happened. Was there any firstly, well,

803
00:37:46,719 --> 00:37:48,520
Speaker 1: tell us about how that was for you in a minute.

804
00:37:48,520 --> 00:37:51,600
Speaker 1: But before we get there, was there any consequences, because

805
00:37:51,600 --> 00:37:53,240
Speaker 1: I want to punch that person in the face.

806
00:37:54,560 --> 00:37:57,239
Speaker 4: Definitely, there was definitely a few stern words, you know,

807
00:37:57,280 --> 00:37:59,799
Speaker 4: from your mother's and definitely I was probably yes, seven

808
00:37:59,880 --> 00:38:02,799
Speaker 4: or at the time, so I didn't really understand that

809
00:38:02,880 --> 00:38:04,359
Speaker 4: the weight of the words that were said.

810
00:38:04,360 --> 00:38:06,640
Speaker 3: It really kind of affected me a few years after.

811
00:38:07,440 --> 00:38:09,640
Speaker 4: I really feel like that's when it started to affect me,

812
00:38:09,719 --> 00:38:12,319
Speaker 4: those couple of experiences getting my diagnosis.

813
00:38:12,320 --> 00:38:14,759
Speaker 3: But yeah, it was probably six months before that.

814
00:38:14,800 --> 00:38:19,040
Speaker 4: We'd had multiple different diagnosises and dyslexia, and then you

815
00:38:19,080 --> 00:38:21,719
Speaker 4: get the bifocal glasses, and then you know, you get

816
00:38:21,760 --> 00:38:24,360
Speaker 4: all these different tests and they were all pretty fine

817
00:38:24,400 --> 00:38:27,160
Speaker 4: but didn't lead to any answers, and then yeah, we

818
00:38:27,200 --> 00:38:30,480
Speaker 4: had the sort of the specialist appointment and I can

819
00:38:30,560 --> 00:38:33,640
Speaker 4: say that he is no longer practicing. It wasn't I

820
00:38:33,680 --> 00:38:36,719
Speaker 4: didn't personally or our family didn't personally put in a

821
00:38:36,800 --> 00:38:38,440
Speaker 4: complaint or anything like that.

822
00:38:38,960 --> 00:38:42,240
Speaker 3: But it wasn't the since learning.

823
00:38:41,920 --> 00:38:45,440
Speaker 4: Otherwise, it's not the first experience of being called retired,

824
00:38:45,520 --> 00:38:47,719
Speaker 4: Like I wasn't the first person where who's had that

825
00:38:47,840 --> 00:38:52,200
Speaker 4: experience with that particular optometrist. So really, yeah, this is

826
00:38:52,200 --> 00:38:54,239
Speaker 4: back in two thousand and six too, so it was

827
00:38:54,280 --> 00:38:55,480
Speaker 4: a bit of a different time.

828
00:38:55,520 --> 00:38:57,880
Speaker 3: People really did feed into the stereotype.

829
00:38:57,960 --> 00:39:00,600
Speaker 4: So I rocked up at the optometrist appointment, and I

830
00:39:00,600 --> 00:39:02,040
Speaker 4: didn't I guess I didn't look blind.

831
00:39:02,080 --> 00:39:03,279
Speaker 3: I didn't have a cane, I didn't have.

832
00:39:03,200 --> 00:39:05,080
Speaker 4: A guide dog or the real dark sunni is at

833
00:39:05,120 --> 00:39:08,080
Speaker 4: the time, And because I could still be quite independent,

834
00:39:08,640 --> 00:39:12,200
Speaker 4: it was like they couldn't understand, like, if you're saying

835
00:39:12,200 --> 00:39:13,759
Speaker 4: you can't see, well, how are you doing this?

836
00:39:14,160 --> 00:39:16,160
Speaker 3: So then I guess it really frustrated them.

837
00:39:16,640 --> 00:39:19,480
Speaker 4: And it was also a combination of it, Yes, starguts

838
00:39:19,840 --> 00:39:25,160
Speaker 4: not having much research or not being easily detectable, that really,

839
00:39:25,239 --> 00:39:27,680
Speaker 4: I guess, yeah, infuriated him. It kind of reminds me

840
00:39:27,719 --> 00:39:30,759
Speaker 4: of I tell people, especially when I'm I guess at

841
00:39:30,840 --> 00:39:34,200
Speaker 4: younger school groups, I say, you know the movie inside.

842
00:39:33,719 --> 00:39:34,960
Speaker 3: Out with all the different characters.

843
00:39:35,000 --> 00:39:38,680
Speaker 4: You've got happiness, you've got joy, you've got sadness, and anger. Well,

844
00:39:38,760 --> 00:39:41,320
Speaker 4: he reminded me of anger that day, Like I really

845
00:39:41,360 --> 00:39:43,560
Speaker 4: felt like you could feel the steam coming out of

846
00:39:43,560 --> 00:39:44,040
Speaker 4: his ears.

847
00:39:44,080 --> 00:39:47,400
Speaker 3: And yeah, I feel like it probably did affect my mother.

848
00:39:47,360 --> 00:39:49,640
Speaker 4: And my family more at the time that experience than

849
00:39:49,640 --> 00:39:52,319
Speaker 4: it did personally me. I have found out in later

850
00:39:52,440 --> 00:39:55,520
Speaker 4: years that that was quite challenging for mum and she

851
00:39:55,600 --> 00:39:59,040
Speaker 4: was very upset, and so with my grandparents at the time,

852
00:39:59,120 --> 00:40:02,040
Speaker 4: And so you do learn after the fact.

853
00:40:02,160 --> 00:40:03,800
Speaker 3: Hindsight, it's a beautiful thing. I guess.

854
00:40:04,320 --> 00:40:06,560
Speaker 4: Yeah, my family, I suppose tried to protect me or

855
00:40:06,600 --> 00:40:09,120
Speaker 4: shield me a bit from that side of things, and

856
00:40:09,440 --> 00:40:11,799
Speaker 4: I guess they were so shocked to think that I'd

857
00:40:11,800 --> 00:40:14,239
Speaker 4: been cold, a retard or it was directed at mum,

858
00:40:14,280 --> 00:40:16,919
Speaker 4: but I was there present. I feel like they did

859
00:40:17,000 --> 00:40:19,040
Speaker 4: that really did sort of scare them into the next

860
00:40:19,080 --> 00:40:21,520
Speaker 4: steps of Okay, well, how do we get a diagnosis?

861
00:40:21,560 --> 00:40:24,160
Speaker 4: But yeah, we were lucky enough that we did find

862
00:40:24,560 --> 00:40:29,160
Speaker 4: the amazing fresh out of Uni passionate ophthalmologist, and yeah,

863
00:40:29,200 --> 00:40:32,480
Speaker 4: we got the diagnosis. And it is important to note

864
00:40:32,480 --> 00:40:36,400
Speaker 4: that Stargut's disease, the gene that is connected to Stargus's disease,

865
00:40:36,880 --> 00:40:40,320
Speaker 4: was only discovered in nineteen ninety six, so they hadn't

866
00:40:40,400 --> 00:40:42,720
Speaker 4: had a hell of a lot of time to really

867
00:40:42,800 --> 00:40:43,520
Speaker 4: research it.

868
00:40:43,480 --> 00:40:46,600
Speaker 3: In a heap of detail. And when I was diagnosed yet,

869
00:40:46,600 --> 00:40:47,600
Speaker 3: it was in two thousand and five.

870
00:40:47,640 --> 00:40:50,800
Speaker 4: Two thousand and six was that period of the diagnosis journey,

871
00:40:51,400 --> 00:40:53,439
Speaker 4: So it was only yeah, nine or ten years since

872
00:40:53,480 --> 00:40:55,960
Speaker 4: they'd really understood what Stargus's disease is.

873
00:40:56,680 --> 00:40:58,719
Speaker 1: So you know, what I think is what I think

874
00:40:58,800 --> 00:41:02,600
Speaker 1: is ironic is that that he I don't even want

875
00:41:02,640 --> 00:41:05,839
Speaker 1: to say the word right, but he laid you that right.

876
00:41:06,719 --> 00:41:11,120
Speaker 1: But ironically, I would have I think you were probably

877
00:41:11,200 --> 00:41:14,800
Speaker 1: much smarter than average, not even average, but way smarter

878
00:41:14,920 --> 00:41:18,520
Speaker 1: than average because people couldn't even tell that you had

879
00:41:18,520 --> 00:41:24,840
Speaker 1: a disability, Like you navigated life without this incredibly important

880
00:41:25,320 --> 00:41:29,840
Speaker 1: ability that nearly everyone has, and you were so good

881
00:41:29,880 --> 00:41:32,960
Speaker 1: at faking it for one of a better word and

882
00:41:33,120 --> 00:41:36,439
Speaker 1: problem solving, like you're navigating the world not being able

883
00:41:36,520 --> 00:41:40,120
Speaker 1: to fucking see and people don't even know. I mean,

884
00:41:40,239 --> 00:41:45,400
Speaker 1: that's a whole different kind of intelligence. Like that's social intelligence,

885
00:41:45,480 --> 00:41:50,239
Speaker 1: that's emotional intelligence, communication like that is that is so

886
00:41:51,320 --> 00:41:53,440
Speaker 1: the fact that you figured out how to do that

887
00:41:53,960 --> 00:41:56,839
Speaker 1: so that people couldn't even tell you how to disability

888
00:41:56,920 --> 00:42:00,279
Speaker 1: at such a young age, it's kind of amazing.

889
00:42:00,680 --> 00:42:02,200
Speaker 3: Yeah, I really do.

890
00:42:02,360 --> 00:42:05,160
Speaker 4: Actually, Like in hindsight, I look back and I think,

891
00:42:05,200 --> 00:42:07,600
Speaker 4: you know, the mental health side of things and the

892
00:42:07,640 --> 00:42:09,719
Speaker 4: depression and that side of things that was, you know,

893
00:42:09,920 --> 00:42:13,200
Speaker 4: a byproduct of my experiences that you know, it definitely

894
00:42:13,239 --> 00:42:15,480
Speaker 4: shaped me into the person I am. But I wouldn't

895
00:42:15,760 --> 00:42:17,839
Speaker 4: go back and wish it upon any young person because

896
00:42:17,840 --> 00:42:18,040
Speaker 4: it was.

897
00:42:18,040 --> 00:42:19,200
Speaker 3: A horrible time in my life.

898
00:42:19,280 --> 00:42:21,160
Speaker 4: But you know, that's why I do what I do now,

899
00:42:21,280 --> 00:42:23,480
Speaker 4: is that so I can bring others out of their

900
00:42:23,520 --> 00:42:26,400
Speaker 4: shell and then still confidence in others. But yeah, definitely

901
00:42:26,480 --> 00:42:28,560
Speaker 4: at the time, I look back now and I do

902
00:42:28,680 --> 00:42:31,400
Speaker 4: think that because I didn't want people.

903
00:42:31,120 --> 00:42:33,240
Speaker 3: To know that I was going blind, in a way,

904
00:42:33,800 --> 00:42:34,680
Speaker 3: it did really.

905
00:42:34,520 --> 00:42:37,000
Speaker 4: Allow me to almost be like I sort of referred

906
00:42:37,040 --> 00:42:39,440
Speaker 4: to it as like, you know, the undercover blind person

907
00:42:39,480 --> 00:42:42,479
Speaker 4: or the you know, the Bruce Wayne of blindness. And yeah,

908
00:42:43,480 --> 00:42:46,080
Speaker 4: I don't regret it at all, because you know, I

909
00:42:46,200 --> 00:42:48,400
Speaker 4: just lived. I just woke up every day. In my family.

910
00:42:48,800 --> 00:42:51,200
Speaker 4: I was never treated as someone who was blind. So

911
00:42:51,600 --> 00:42:53,960
Speaker 4: that was also a really good benefit because I just

912
00:42:54,040 --> 00:42:56,480
Speaker 4: lived normally, So there was none of that sort of

913
00:42:56,480 --> 00:42:59,600
Speaker 4: bubble rat gold star approach. But it was because I

914
00:42:59,600 --> 00:43:02,719
Speaker 4: didn't it happened, and in a way it did take

915
00:43:02,719 --> 00:43:05,279
Speaker 4: away from sort of me being able to connect with

916
00:43:05,360 --> 00:43:07,440
Speaker 4: certain people, and you know, it did turn into that

917
00:43:07,520 --> 00:43:10,480
Speaker 4: victimhood mentality. But now I'm in a place where I

918
00:43:10,480 --> 00:43:15,080
Speaker 4: am today, I actually kind of redefined that chapter in

919
00:43:15,120 --> 00:43:17,200
Speaker 4: my life and I actually think that it had it

920
00:43:17,280 --> 00:43:20,600
Speaker 4: gave me the skills to this day, I still navigate

921
00:43:20,800 --> 00:43:24,280
Speaker 4: very well, I'm still very independent and very confident, and.

922
00:43:24,719 --> 00:43:26,080
Speaker 3: I really do feel like it.

923
00:43:26,200 --> 00:43:29,359
Speaker 4: It's so hard to describe, but yeah, there's so many

924
00:43:29,400 --> 00:43:31,560
Speaker 4: things that you just learn how to adapt, and I

925
00:43:31,600 --> 00:43:33,600
Speaker 4: don't get it right all the time. Sometimes I'll see

926
00:43:33,600 --> 00:43:35,959
Speaker 4: a blob and I'll think, oh, that's the fridge door,

927
00:43:36,000 --> 00:43:38,240
Speaker 4: and then it turns out to be a microwave or something.

928
00:43:38,280 --> 00:43:41,560
Speaker 4: So there's definitely things that I completely mess up. But

929
00:43:41,680 --> 00:43:44,400
Speaker 4: for the most part, all those years of really trying

930
00:43:44,480 --> 00:43:47,600
Speaker 4: to yeah, not be known as the person that was

931
00:43:47,640 --> 00:43:50,440
Speaker 4: losing their vision, Yeah, it really helped me to be

932
00:43:50,440 --> 00:43:54,399
Speaker 4: able to navigate around pretty much undercover, even to this day.

933
00:43:54,480 --> 00:43:56,759
Speaker 4: A lot of people, if I walked past someone down

934
00:43:56,760 --> 00:44:00,239
Speaker 4: the main street, if I didn't tell them that I was,

935
00:44:00,280 --> 00:44:02,239
Speaker 4: you know, losing vision or something, or if they didn't

936
00:44:02,239 --> 00:44:04,520
Speaker 4: see me try to get my phone out and read

937
00:44:04,560 --> 00:44:06,719
Speaker 4: a menu with my screen or eader on, they.

938
00:44:06,600 --> 00:44:07,520
Speaker 3: Would have no idea.

939
00:44:07,920 --> 00:44:14,400
Speaker 6: Yeah, yeah, yeah, what do you what's the This is

940
00:44:14,400 --> 00:44:17,680
Speaker 6: a selfish question, NA, what's what's the what's the deal

941
00:44:17,719 --> 00:44:18,640
Speaker 6: with guide dogs?

942
00:44:18,880 --> 00:44:21,839
Speaker 1: When do we get a puppy? Is there is there

943
00:44:21,880 --> 00:44:24,319
Speaker 1: like do you qualify for a guide dog?

944
00:44:24,440 --> 00:44:27,839
Speaker 4: Or I've got I've got currently a little guide dog

945
00:44:27,880 --> 00:44:29,920
Speaker 4: at home that's not actually a proper guy dog.

946
00:44:29,960 --> 00:44:32,359
Speaker 3: I call him Boris the Bastard. He's a true Hour.

947
00:44:32,960 --> 00:44:35,480
Speaker 4: So my sister got a dog a few years back

948
00:44:35,480 --> 00:44:36,920
Speaker 4: at the start of COVID.

949
00:44:36,600 --> 00:44:37,840
Speaker 3: And it latched onto me.

950
00:44:38,040 --> 00:44:40,600
Speaker 4: So now I'm the owner of a four year old

951
00:44:40,640 --> 00:44:42,720
Speaker 4: Chu Hour, So I'm stuck with him until I'm probably

952
00:44:42,719 --> 00:44:47,640
Speaker 4: blenty forty, but definitely the definitely in the future, when

953
00:44:47,680 --> 00:44:51,359
Speaker 4: I'm older or my next dog, I will definitely look

954
00:44:51,400 --> 00:44:54,200
Speaker 4: into getting a guide dog. How it works is so

955
00:44:54,280 --> 00:44:57,960
Speaker 4: you first do cane training, so you do accessibility training,

956
00:44:58,320 --> 00:44:59,080
Speaker 4: and you learn.

957
00:44:58,960 --> 00:44:59,960
Speaker 3: How to use a cane.

958
00:45:00,040 --> 00:45:02,960
Speaker 4: Now I did that years and years ago, and I

959
00:45:03,000 --> 00:45:05,440
Speaker 4: only to this day still only use a cane in

960
00:45:05,480 --> 00:45:09,400
Speaker 4: situations where I'm very unfamiliar, so maybe like an airport

961
00:45:09,560 --> 00:45:12,120
Speaker 4: or when I arrive at Melbourne at Southern Cross station,

962
00:45:12,239 --> 00:45:14,600
Speaker 4: I'll get my cane out that sort of thing. But

963
00:45:14,640 --> 00:45:16,640
Speaker 4: for the most part, I even to this day, still

964
00:45:16,680 --> 00:45:18,880
Speaker 4: don't use a cane a hell of a lot. But

965
00:45:19,120 --> 00:45:22,919
Speaker 4: definitely you first start with the cane training and then

966
00:45:22,960 --> 00:45:24,360
Speaker 4: you can if you want.

967
00:45:24,160 --> 00:45:26,080
Speaker 3: To look in to get in a guide dog.

968
00:45:26,160 --> 00:45:30,600
Speaker 4: There are sort of characteristics or credentials to get a

969
00:45:30,640 --> 00:45:34,440
Speaker 4: guide dog, you have to be significantly visually impaired. But

970
00:45:34,960 --> 00:45:37,520
Speaker 4: I would definitely fit that criteria, but I just haven't

971
00:45:37,520 --> 00:45:41,399
Speaker 4: looked into it personally myself. But definitely in the future, Yeah,

972
00:45:41,480 --> 00:45:44,080
Speaker 4: I'll definitely get a guide dog in some chapter of

973
00:45:44,080 --> 00:45:46,400
Speaker 4: my life. But yeah, currently at the moment, I've got

974
00:45:46,400 --> 00:45:47,080
Speaker 4: a two hour.

975
00:45:48,320 --> 00:45:51,400
Speaker 1: Yeah that seems more like a problem than a fucking assistance.

976
00:45:52,960 --> 00:45:56,160
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, it seems like they're going to add work

977
00:45:56,200 --> 00:45:56,719
Speaker 1: to your day.

978
00:45:57,120 --> 00:45:59,200
Speaker 4: I never would have like, I love him now, of

979
00:45:59,239 --> 00:46:01,760
Speaker 4: course because he's more but I would have never personally

980
00:46:01,800 --> 00:46:03,680
Speaker 4: like to how I used always want like.

981
00:46:03,680 --> 00:46:05,200
Speaker 3: A corgy or a pug or something.

982
00:46:05,239 --> 00:46:08,520
Speaker 4: But yeah, definitely, though in the future I want to

983
00:46:09,040 --> 00:46:12,400
Speaker 4: guide dog. And as my vision does progress, because it

984
00:46:12,480 --> 00:46:15,080
Speaker 4: is a progressive disease, so you know, when I am

985
00:46:15,239 --> 00:46:19,279
Speaker 4: forty and when I am fifty, my starguts disease. There

986
00:46:19,360 --> 00:46:21,560
Speaker 4: is a high chance it's quite stable at the moment,

987
00:46:21,600 --> 00:46:23,920
Speaker 4: which I'm very grateful for. It's been quite stable for

988
00:46:23,960 --> 00:46:27,440
Speaker 4: many years, but it will continue to degenerate and then

989
00:46:27,520 --> 00:46:30,520
Speaker 4: as I do age, my vision naturally will get a

990
00:46:30,520 --> 00:46:33,439
Speaker 4: little bit a little bit shot over the years as well.

991
00:46:33,560 --> 00:46:35,840
Speaker 4: So in the future I think it will definitely be

992
00:46:36,040 --> 00:46:38,719
Speaker 4: one hundred percent beneficial for me to have a guide dog,

993
00:46:38,800 --> 00:46:40,320
Speaker 4: but I can't see it happening.

994
00:46:40,400 --> 00:46:41,200
Speaker 3: Yeah, in the next.

995
00:46:41,040 --> 00:46:43,439
Speaker 4: Few years while I got my hands full with Yeah,

996
00:46:43,480 --> 00:46:45,080
Speaker 4: boris the bastard, that's for sure.

997
00:46:45,840 --> 00:46:49,640
Speaker 1: Well, boris the bastard. Now, speaking of speaking of relationships,

998
00:46:49,640 --> 00:46:53,560
Speaker 1: can I be cheeky and ask you about relationships? Are

999
00:46:53,640 --> 00:46:57,040
Speaker 1: you track? Are you tracking steady as the old people

1000
00:46:57,080 --> 00:46:58,000
Speaker 1: say with anyone?

1001
00:46:58,719 --> 00:47:01,879
Speaker 4: No, I'm single as a at the moment, But over

1002
00:47:01,920 --> 00:47:04,640
Speaker 4: the years I had a few sort of friends and

1003
00:47:04,719 --> 00:47:08,600
Speaker 4: benefits kind of deal and a few nice but yeah,

1004
00:47:08,920 --> 00:47:10,600
Speaker 4: at the moment, yeah, single as a pringle.

1005
00:47:12,200 --> 00:47:15,239
Speaker 1: Friends with benefits, you heard it here first, friends with Well,

1006
00:47:15,360 --> 00:47:17,799
Speaker 1: I think we're looking more than that, Matt. I think

1007
00:47:17,880 --> 00:47:21,080
Speaker 1: we're looking for some kind of you know, Hey, mate,

1008
00:47:21,600 --> 00:47:24,800
Speaker 1: you're a gun. It's fucking so nice meeting you. You're funny,

1009
00:47:24,800 --> 00:47:30,759
Speaker 1: you're clever, you're an inspiration. Tell my audience about how

1010
00:47:30,800 --> 00:47:33,160
Speaker 1: they can connect with you, or if they want to

1011
00:47:33,200 --> 00:47:35,560
Speaker 1: book you for an event or to work with their

1012
00:47:35,560 --> 00:47:38,000
Speaker 1: team or their company or their school. How do they

1013
00:47:38,080 --> 00:47:38,719
Speaker 1: go about that?

1014
00:47:38,880 --> 00:47:41,560
Speaker 4: Oh, one hundred percent? Well, you can find me by

1015
00:47:41,640 --> 00:47:45,200
Speaker 4: typing into Google. Matt Degricci Vision or you can type

1016
00:47:45,239 --> 00:47:49,080
Speaker 4: in MDV. I'm also on the social so Instagram and Facebook,

1017
00:47:49,200 --> 00:47:52,400
Speaker 4: YouTube LinkedIn all that stuff. I do also post my

1018
00:47:52,440 --> 00:47:54,719
Speaker 4: stuff on TikTok. I don't personally use it because I

1019
00:47:55,239 --> 00:47:57,239
Speaker 4: personally and bias against and I think that app is

1020
00:47:57,239 --> 00:48:00,000
Speaker 4: the devil. But that's that's the day and age believe,

1021
00:48:00,239 --> 00:48:02,000
Speaker 4: so I've got to post my content on there so

1022
00:48:02,239 --> 00:48:04,480
Speaker 4: you can find me across all the platforms at Matt

1023
00:48:04,480 --> 00:48:07,439
Speaker 4: Degricci Vision and on my website at mattd Degoucci vision

1024
00:48:07,480 --> 00:48:10,719
Speaker 4: dot com. But I just I should also say I

1025
00:48:10,920 --> 00:48:16,400
Speaker 4: have the I suppose the unprivilege of having sharing the

1026
00:48:16,480 --> 00:48:19,320
Speaker 4: same name as another person whose name is Matt de Grucci,

1027
00:48:19,360 --> 00:48:21,880
Speaker 4: who is a serial killer who murdered his family. So

1028
00:48:22,440 --> 00:48:24,680
Speaker 4: I have had the battle over the past eight years

1029
00:48:24,719 --> 00:48:28,839
Speaker 4: since doing my own disability and blindness advocacy. That yeah,

1030
00:48:28,960 --> 00:48:31,320
Speaker 4: the Google results when you type in Matt de Grucci,

1031
00:48:31,480 --> 00:48:33,440
Speaker 4: you will probably be met with a few pages of

1032
00:48:33,480 --> 00:48:36,640
Speaker 4: the serial killer version that's not me. Please don't get

1033
00:48:36,640 --> 00:48:39,600
Speaker 4: it confused, because you would be surprised how many dms

1034
00:48:39,600 --> 00:48:43,040
Speaker 4: and our website messages I get saying you're going to hell,

1035
00:48:43,239 --> 00:48:46,719
Speaker 4: You've you've committed crimes against humanity, and I'm like, that's

1036
00:48:46,719 --> 00:48:47,279
Speaker 4: the wrong Matt.

1037
00:48:47,360 --> 00:48:50,040
Speaker 3: That's the wrong Matt. But you can find me for sure.

1038
00:48:51,120 --> 00:48:54,760
Speaker 1: I know I did the exact same thing. He's absolutely everyone.

1039
00:48:54,960 --> 00:48:57,320
Speaker 1: Because I had a bit of you know what happens

1040
00:48:57,400 --> 00:49:00,120
Speaker 1: is because I do a podcast every day, Melissa or

1041
00:49:00,200 --> 00:49:04,719
Speaker 1: Tiff sends me through some info and I just read

1042
00:49:04,760 --> 00:49:07,040
Speaker 1: a bit of an overview or a bio or a synopsis,

1043
00:49:07,080 --> 00:49:10,479
Speaker 1: and then it was quite short. I'm like, okay, cool,

1044
00:49:10,520 --> 00:49:13,480
Speaker 1: And then I thought I'd just jump into you know,

1045
00:49:13,640 --> 00:49:17,360
Speaker 1: doctor Google, and then this fucking person who killed his family.

1046
00:49:17,400 --> 00:49:19,640
Speaker 1: I'm like, what have we got this bloke done for?

1047
00:49:21,360 --> 00:49:23,200
Speaker 1: It's not the thank god, it's not the same.

1048
00:49:23,640 --> 00:49:24,480
Speaker 3: I'm working on it.

1049
00:49:24,560 --> 00:49:27,120
Speaker 4: I'm trying to get my name to appear higher on

1050
00:49:27,200 --> 00:49:29,680
Speaker 4: Google than the serial killer version of my name.

1051
00:49:29,800 --> 00:49:31,480
Speaker 3: So that's a work in progress.

1052
00:49:32,200 --> 00:49:35,480
Speaker 1: Yeah, that is. That is kind of terrifying but funny

1053
00:49:35,520 --> 00:49:37,960
Speaker 1: all at the same time. Hey, Mabel, well say goodbye

1054
00:49:38,080 --> 00:49:39,920
Speaker 1: fair but for the moment, Thanks so much, Matt. We

1055
00:49:40,000 --> 00:49:44,799
Speaker 1: appreciate you and you're genuinely an inspiration, and thanks so

1056
00:49:44,880 --> 00:49:46,799
Speaker 1: much for what you're doing and all the work that

1057
00:49:46,840 --> 00:49:51,160
Speaker 1: you're doing and sharing insights and stories and information and

1058
00:49:51,239 --> 00:49:53,520
Speaker 1: helping people with disability as well. It's amazing.

1059
00:49:53,719 --> 00:49:55,879
Speaker 3: No, thank you for having me Harts, and thank you Tiff,

1060
00:49:56,080 --> 00:49:58,279
Speaker 3: it's been great. Thank you, thank you,