Lessons from a 14 year old girl

The other day as I got out of the car in front of my local yarn shop I noticed a guy walking towards me on the snowy sidewalk. I didn't want to accidently walk in front of him so unfolding my cane and stamping the snow from my boots I started to walk the 10 feet to the door of the shop. That is when I noticed that not only was the guy not walking towards me anymore he had actually stopped and was staring at me! My first reaction was to ignore him; after all, I get stared at constantly and its usually just some stupid teenager, or a well intentioned person who realizes rather quickly that I don't need help.
In this case though; the guy kept staring. I'm not talking about a curious stare either! While I lack enough vision to see faces I have enough intuition to know when I'm being given a not so subtle once over. It was obvious that he didn't find me attractive; in fact, his stare told me that he found me quite repugnant. I kept my head up and using every ounce of strength and decorum that I had been taught as a child I walked in to the shop. It was only when I was in the doorway did I turn around and look right at this jerk who was staring me down.
When I stepped in to the shop the owners 14 year old daughter asked without preamble; "What is that guys problem? He was staring you down."
I then had to explain to a mystified 14 year old that; yes, I get stared at on a daily basis and its just because I'm blind. In total bewilderment the owners daughter asked: "But you are just like everyone else? I mean you're blind but that is not a reason to stare."
I wanted to hug her, I wanted to give her chocolate and a shiny sparkly ribbon. In all her short life she at least learned a lesson that most people never learn. Humans in all there differences are really all very similar to one another. I cry, laugh and curse just like most of my fellow human beings. I love the beauty of a summer day and shiver in the cold of the winter; and I do these things just like everyone else. I walk, talk, love, grow angry and forgive those who have wronged me and I do this not because I'm a superhuman woman; I do this because its how I was raised to behave in polite society and in private. My lack of vision may keep me from safely driving a car but it has never given me license to stare openly at another person with such outward disgust.
In my 24 years on this planet I have done my best to live simply. I recycle, I try to make some of the things I wear in the winter, I donate to charities and I often go out of my way to help others in need. As I stood in the warmth of the yarn shop wiping the snow from my boots I came to the realization that no matter who I become, no matter what I do or how much money I will make in this life some people will never stop seeing me as blind. I could be famous, I could be disgustingly rich, in my free time I could travel to Africa and save disadvantaged orphan children and all I would ever be to some people is blind. In that moment I loved this 14 year old for not only learning a valuable lesson but for teaching me something as well. There will be other people just like that guy who will inevitably stare at me. I can choose to be pissed or to make a small attempt to educate them if they are willing. After all according to a very wise girl in a yarn store I'm just like everyone else.