Motivational speaker inspires middle schoolers
By Stephanie Bertholdo bertholdo@theacorn.com

JANN HENDRY/Acorn Newspapers POSITIVE THINKER- Motivational speaker Craig McFarlane, blind by age 2, addresses Lindero Canyon Middle School students during an assembly last week.

Craig MacFarlane may have been blinded at the tender age of 2½, but the disability never interfered with his life, goals and dreams.

MacFarlane recently inspired seventh-grade students at Lindero Canyon Middle School with his tales of purpose and achievement and his refusal to allow blindness to interfere with the realization of his dreams.

A world-class athlete, MacFarlane has won more than 100 gold medals in several sports, including wrestling, downhill skiing, water skiing and track and field. To compete expertly against sighted competitors, he honed his "muscle memory," a training technique that capitalizes on his other senses to remember stances, movements and techniques to successfully repeat athletic moves. He also plays golf and basketball.

MacFarlane told students he lost his eyesight due to a freak accident in his backyard. Neighborhood children were playing with a device used to light a welding torch, and an accidental hit in his left eye caused permanent blindness. Soon after, MacFarlane went blind in his right eye after he developed a rare eye disease called sympathetic ophthalmia.

"I want to leave you with a message I feel will be helpful, especially on days when things aren't going quite right," MacFarlane said to the roomful of students.

He said his family never treated him as a blind person. "They didn't know how to raise a blind child," he said. Rather, his parents instilled in him a "can-do" spirit that inspired him to never allow blindness to stand in the way of his goals.

"It's easy to make excuses," he warned. "Students who take the easy road will hamper their ability to reach their potential. Learn to challenge yourself."

As for challenges, MacFarlane has had plenty. He grew up in a small town in Ontario, Canada, and the closest school for the blind was 500 miles away. By age 6, he was living at the school and only visited home three times a year.

Although living away from his family at such a young age was a "shock," MacFarlane said he was afforded many opportunities. He was introduced to wrestling at age 7, a sport that taught him "you're only as good as your last performance."

MacFarlane encouraged the youngsters to use their frustrations and failures to their advantage and said they were mere "stepping stones."

"It's like climbing a ladder," MacFarlane said. "You don't skip rungs; you climb one or two at a time." He said patience and positive thinking are required to overcome adversity and meet everyday challenges as well as loftier goals.

"When you wake up, put your game face on before you walk out of the house," he said. He also suggested that students formulate a plan for each day, but more importantly, set goals for upcoming weeks, months or even years. Goals, he said, give people a reason to push themselves.

In addition to his athletic success, MacFarlane learned to play the trumpet, clarinet and trombone.

MacFarlane admitted there was no secret to becoming successful. "None of us are entitled to anything," he said. "Create your own breaks." He said good old-fashioned hard work helped him achieve. To stay in top athletic form, he said, he would perform 500 situps and pushups every day.

"I never wanted people to look at my blindness as a handicap," he said. Blindness, he said, was simply an inconvenience.

To help students remember his message, he used the mnemonic technique of attaching a word to every letter of a word. The letter P in pride, he said, stands for perseverance. Setting goals is essential to persevere, he said.

The letter R, he said, stands for respect, adding that respectful living entails helping other people. "A sign of a true champion is one who is willing to stop and help someone else," he said.

MacFarlane attached the word individuality to the letter I in pride to remind students not to allow friends to discourage them in any of their goals.

The letter D stands for desire. He said "desire is measured by the size of a person's heart. All of us are gifted with an abundance of desire. It's a matter of unlocking it."

Pride's final letter, E, he said, stands for enthusiasm. "I never met a successful person who wasn't passionate about what they do," he said.

Students had the chance to ask MacFarlane many questions at the Nov. 9 session. When asked if blindness had inspired him, MacFarlane said he was always inspired to put forth his best effort to prove to himself that blindness would only be a minor inconvenience in his life.

MacFarlane also fielded questions about the nature of blindness, and told students he can't remember seeing colors. He compared trying to describe blindness to describing the taste of water.

Terri A. Corbett, parent of a Lindero student who works at Edward Jones investment services in Westlake Village, sponsored MacFarlane's visit to the school.