As a child and adolescent, I always felt very inferior to sighted people. I thought that acting sighted as much as possible was what I should aspire to because I thought sighted people were so much better, even personality wise, than myself. My mother, in particular, perpetuated this and used to begrudge me having any blind friends or having anything to do with blind people in general.
People are people, whether they are blind, sighted, black, white or pink.
Now I feel that my blindness is just part of my identity. And, I am happy to be able to say that, at the age of 31, I fully accept this and love myself for what I am. I have noticed, and this is only my perception mind, that a lot of blind people either are estranged from their families or, conversely, live in their family's pockets and are completely consumed by their parents. I live about 2000 miles from my parents and I am quite happy with this distance. I am not happy to be so far away from my sister though, as I adore her very much.