Overcoming Blindness with This Equation

I am so happy you are here today.

My name, of course, is Kevin Lowe, your host, and this is episode number 21.

This is what I'm calling the celebration episode.

Celebrating?

What are we celebrating?

We are celebrating my 17th anniversary.

What anniversary?

Well, the day that my life was saved.

That's right, because I know you may be listening to this episode sometime in the future, but as of the day it's being released, October 28th, 2020?

Today, marked 17 years since I went into the operating room to have a recently discovered brain tumor removed.

The brain tumor was found right in time because the doctor said without its removal, I would be dead in less than six months.

So I went into the operating room knowing my life was going to be saved, life was going to be better, and we would move on with life.

Well, that did happen, my life was saved, but it came at a cost that no one ever expected.

Because if you know my story, then you know that I awoke from surgery to find a world gone dark.

I was left completely blind in both eyes.

But I did not let that stop me.

I kept living and enjoying life just as I had always done.

And here I am today, 17 years later.

And you know what makes today's anniversary more special, more meaningful than the rest?

Well, that's because as of today, I have now lived another 17 years as somebody who's blind.

That's completely mind-blowing to me.

The fact that I've now been blind for as long as I had been able to see.

And I think though what's pretty cool about it is that it happens to be in the year 2020.

A number synonymous with Vision.

Alright, before I get too far along in the episode, I've got to take one quick moment to give credit where credit is due.

Because I don't want for one moment you to think I'm strong enough to have done this alone.

Because I am certainly not.

When people ask me, Kevin, how have you done it?

How have you gotten over losing your sight, becoming blind at 17 years old, and having everything in your life change?

And I go back to two things.

That's my faith and my family.

I have to give the biggest round of applause to my family.

Because they have been there with me from point A all the way till now.

Every day of my life, my family has been there with me.

Before I went blind, and of course afterwards as well.

I have family members who are so awesome, always willing to take me places whenever I need to go, like my wonderful Nana, or my mom or sister, my dad, whoever it is, they're always there ready to help me.

And I'm telling you, it's not just them.

It's my entire family.

All my aunts and uncles, my cousins, everybody is absolutely amazing.

And I couldn't do it without my family's support.

And the other aspect is my faith.

Because I do not hide the fact that I am a Christian, that I am a man of faith.

God has been there with me every single step of the way, and I could not do it without him.

And that's what leads me into the main topic of today.

Because a couple of years ago, a buddy of mine, Wilson, he put on a big, huge production where he did a documentary about my story.

And it was shown in front of a room of close to a hundred people.

Way more people showed up to hear my story than I ever thought.

And at the end of the video, I got up and gave an impromptu speech.

Lucky enough, that speech was recorded.

And that's what I want to share with you today.

On the 17th anniversary, I want to share with you my equation for making a life worth living.

Because at the end of the day, if life isn't worth living, then what else do you have?

So I hope you enjoy this speech I gave.

And just keep in the back of your mind, what is your equation to equal a life worth living?

The video was awesome.

That's the first time that I've seen it.

So um I would like to have us give a round of applause to Wilson.

unknown: Yeah.

SPEAKER_02: So um, so that was awesome.

Um, so I have to give a big round of applause to him for that.

And also, really for Wilson, this whole event, when uh when Wilson first, you know, came to me and was you know telling me about this whole thing, you know, and then I was like, you know, okay, yeah, yeah, that sounds awesome, sounds cool, you know, not really realizing like his whole idea for this, and and and then even when we got closer to it and we kept talking about the event, and there's gonna be tons of people there.

unknown: And I'm like, dude, I don't think we're gonna have that many people there.

But he's like, people love you, dude.

It's gonna be packed, it's gonna be awesome.

SPEAKER_02: And I'm like, okay, okay, and I just kept doubting him, doubting him, and and he's like, just just watch, just show up, you'll be there, it'll be packed, it'll be awesome.

And look, it's we packed out so but I wanted to come up here and talk to you guys about was um in thinking about it and seeing all of this coming together and and and seeing this whole movement that Wilson is doing with the NCYD, uh, nothing changes until you do.

I I kept thinking back to my story.

The story that this is being built around, this is based off of.

And I kept thinking to myself, but how can I make my story more to you, mean something more to you?

Have you leave here rather than just being like, oh wow, you know that that big black guy, he has to write the story.

You know?

Like, you know, how can it impact you?

And I came back to the two things that I mentioned in the video that have gotten me to where I am today.

That's my faith, my family.

And for any of you who have worked with me with my travel business, you have maybe seen some of my uh my little motto, and I took a motto that I had created for myself and kind of incorporated into my business.

I had like business cards and stuff because uh faith plus family plus traveling equals life worth living.

So, anyways, that kind of came off of the faith and family thing because the one thing that that video doesn't show is that the hard times, and let's face it, I was 17 years old, and for me, my light, that light, died on the operating table that day.

Because I had a uh awesome truck, raised forestreen.

It was beautiful, it was sitting in my driveway, and I couldn't drive it because I couldn't even see it.

I had a four-wheeler that my dad had bought me a month before my surgery for my birthday, and I was I was super upset that the neurosurgeon said I wouldn't be able to ride my uh four-wheeler for like three weeks after surgery.

I was all flipped out about that.

So I had that.

I had friends.

When I was in school, I had a huge group of friends.

You know how many of them came by after I went by?

Four.

Those four I'm still friends with today.

My life as I knew it had changed.

And yes, I always maintained a positive, positive disposition, smiley face, laughter, and I think that's what helped me get through it as much as my family.

But there were those hard times.

There have been countless numbers of nights that I had fallen asleep with tears in my eyes, begging and pleading God just to let me wake up the next morning and open my eyes and see.

And yet, no matter how hard I would pray, no matter how hard I would beg, every morning I'd wake up and I'd open my eyes and I'd see the same thing as I did when they were closed.

And I'll be honest with you, let you know that there were times when I didn't want to keep going.

That I just prayed to God, give me the strength to do it, for me to come home and just let me come home.

Because in heaven I'd be able to see again, and the pain wouldn't be there, the sorrow, all the hard times would be gone.

And trust me, if it weren't for two things, I would have found a way.

I would have found whatever means I had to do, I would have done it and I would have ended my life.

But you know why I did it?

I couldn't bear the thought of what my mom, my dad, my sister, my grandparents, my aunts, my uncles, cousins, what would they have to go through if I killed myself.

How I did it was through my faith.

And I think I think uh faith, faith can a lot of times be kind of like a churchy word.

unknown: Um so I could say it's more my relationship with Jesus.

SPEAKER_02: Um and um those two things, and so so and that's kind of where it started when everybody would ask me, Kevin, how do you do it?

How do you do it?

You know, faith and failing.

And so that's where then I kind of developed into this motto for myself of uh I went back to Algebra 1.

I'll know where you guys were.

I was OBMS A trade, Mr.

Papcott.

Awesome health teacher, terrible policies, but we won't go there.

So, you know, the you know, like, you know, X plus Y equals Z type thing.

So I went back to that.

I created the thing for myself of faith plus family equals a life worth living.

And so that equation, that math equation, is kind of what I thought is how I can turn what I'm doing into something that can help you guys.

And with that, so I titled this as What is Your Life's equation?

unknown: Because at some point in our lives, no matter how good things are going, we're all gonna hit hard times.

We're gonna hit rock bottom.

What is it though that is going to make you keep going?

What is it that's going to give you the ability to get out of bed in the morning, get dressed, walk out the door, and do the things that you need to do.

SPEAKER_02: For me, it was my faith.

It's how I did it.

My family is why I did it.

So I guess I would like to turn the question around to you guys.

You already know the answer.

It's to equal a life worth living.

Well, what is that?

For you, maybe it's maybe yours is similar to mine, maybe it's through your faith in your family that equals life worth living.

unknown: Maybe it's not, maybe it's different, maybe it's you have one thing that is what drives you to move forward.

SPEAKER_02: Maybe you have five things, maybe it's, I don't know, your choy of fishing is what makes life worth living for you.

But so I turn it to you guys and say, identify that.

When you guys go home tonight over the next few days, tomorrow when you're at work and you're not doing what you're supposed to, and you're thinking about the vine guy talking about that.

Sit there and think to yourself, yeah, what is it that I live for?

unknown: What is it that keeps you going?

And that's your base.

For me, it's faith and family.

SPEAKER_02: Maybe for you, it's your children, your spouse, job, whatever it may be.

And so that's where I say, identify that.

Because when you have that base, as with me, you can get through anything, even the unthinkable.

unknown: I was plunged into a world of darkness at 17 years old.

SPEAKER_02: I'm still here, I'm still going, and I've reached a point in my life where I'm okay with it.

I just want to make the most out of it.

So, with that, I just want to thank all of you guys for coming.

Thank you for being here to support NCYB, me, video.

Just uh really appreciate all of you guys showing up and um hope you guys have a good rest of the night.

SPEAKER_00: I actually work for the Conference Center for the Blind, so whenever I hear stories, you know, like Kevin's story, it's just so inspiring to know that truly nothing changes until you do.

SPEAKER_01: And that's the lowdown on life and travel.

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And until next time, just keep living and enjoying life like it was meant to be.