“When I was seventeen, I wanted to be a biker chick, race car driver, a cow girl and Mogalie from the Jungle Book.” These were the dreams of Caroline Casey, a former global management consultant turned social entrepreneur. As I watched her speech via TED.com I had to admit that her dreams were very interesting, until she explained why. “All of those things consisted of being FREE, feeling the wind in your hair and just living,” she stated. However, Caroline would soon discover that life does not always go as planned and some obstacles take us down path that we were never supposed to go. A path that crushes those innocent dreams that sometimes we’ll never see come to fruition.
Caroline had her first experience with this on her seventeen birthday when taking a family trip to the eye doctor. Her parents made it seem as if she was going there to support her vision impaired sister, but little did Caroline know that it would be her that needed the support. While the doctor examined her eyes, he asked Caroline what she was doing for her birthday? She excitedly explained to him how she would be practicing to get her driver license. An awkward silence fell over the room as the doctor revealed to Caroline that she was and has been legally blind since birth. Caroline described how a huge lump was in her chest; as I paused, I thought how could she have gone seventeen years without realizing she couldn’t see? Then I realized that ability and potential were the core values that Caroline’s parents embedded into her headed since she was a child. There were no labels and especially no special schooling; she grew up with the belief that she could see. “It’s amazing how far belief can take you,” Caroline stated. Well, from that point on she was on a mission not to be labeled as an individual with a “disability.” Therefore, for the next eleven years Caroline was able to work in different fields and graduate from college without people discovering that she was vision impaired.
However, this was no easy task; as soon as one career got to the point where she had to ask for help, it was on to the next one. Asking for help was one of her greatest fears because she would have to admit that she was different. After finally finding her niche in the financial world, Caroline found herself at a place she had dreaded would come one day. Her vision was decreasing to the point where she couldn’t see anything, not even a glare of light. Once she was forced to see an eye specialist, Caroline received more than just a diagnosis on her eyes but also on her life. There she discovered that she no longer had the belief that her parents instilled in her as a child. She suddenly felt that she had believed in the wrong thing by pretending to be someone she was not. As she took a normal run around the park to clear her head, filled with frustration she found herself hitting her head trying to figure out how to be different and what to do next with her life. She finally came to the realization that the business world was not her calling, but what could she do? “It blew up in my head, and bashed in my heart! I am going to be Magolie from the Jungle Book.” Believe it on not, that is exactly what Caroline did. She flew to India and became an elephant handler; during her six thousand mile journey across India she raised money to support individuals to received catalytic surgery. She is now a personal motivational speaker and the CEO of Kanchi an organization that is geared towards helping society deal with disable people in the work place. The company is named after her elephant, because she said that disability is like an elephant in the room.
Many may be wondering how I am inspired by this wonderful and interesting story. Well, like Caroline I too was living a life that I wasn’t suppose to; trying to be perfect in a career that brought me no sense of freedom or joy. I too experienced the explosion in my head and bashing of passion in my heart when I decided to purse a career in sports management. I admitted to myself that is was time for a change. Caroline’s story reminded me of my potential to succeed and ability to never give up until I see my dreams come true.
-The Sportsnista '95
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