Jessica Pita — Finding Hope and Purpose in the Face of Disability

what's your dream what's your goal what's your motivation what's important to you what's your passion what can you do to change the world this is what's involved conversations with thought leaders and change makers from around the world hear stories of hope and inspiration to help motivate people like you to live your life find your passion passion and live your dream together we can all bring positive change to our world now here's your host David Watts and once again it is what's involved it's so good to have you along with us special guest tonight one that I have been told repeatedly that I need to get hold of and speak to so I thought what the heck let's do that who am I talking about well her name is Jessica Peter hello Jessica welcome hello how are you I'm so glad to be here I'm so glad we finally managed to get this right it's taken a while let's be honest but that's more me than me than you do you do you prefer to be called Jessica or Jess Jess Jessica just seems really long it does and you know if you if you're a radio presenter like me you you don't like to use long words all right just let's start off and give me a little bit of history of Jess at the moment the way that I came to learn about you is through a friend of mine and I believe a friend of yours now as well and he said to me you've got to talk to this young lady she does these inspirational talks and motivational talks and and I said fantastic is she local is she South African he said absolutely so here you are take it away tell me a bit about Jess okay well I am turning 20 actually tomorrow's I was born in 2003 well yeah my name's Jess so that's me around about the age of 11 I was told that I had a brain tumor because we well ever since I was little around four years old I kind of grew up with headaches migraines it was just this continuous cycle and we didn't we couldn't figure out what was causing my headaches I went for numerous tests like allergy tests I eventually got reading glasses and the doctors you know kept telling me you know it's you're gonna go for hundreds of tests but we're not gonna actually figure out what's causing your headaches so then eventually at the age of 10 that's when I got my reading glasses and we thought that would stop my headaches from you know continuously occurring but the next year my mom was like you know what just let's go for checkup maybe you need your glasses to be strengthened so we went for checkup it was round about the end of April May I went in to the optometrist we had my appointments and whatever and then she was like no this is not normal Jess your optic nerve is swollen and it was you know incredibly swollen it wasn't it's not a usual thing at all so I was sent to an ophthalmologist and that's obviously an eye specialist so I went there with my mom also and he did a bunch of tests as well looked in my eyes usable this fancy equipment and then that's when he said no you have a tumor a brain tumor so my mom's in shock I didn't know what that entirely means because I was so little I guess so I think it was the same day I was sent for MRI scans CAD scans to like confirm the the brain tumor situation and then we got the results back and it was confirmed so I did have a brain tumor so my mom actually refused to leave that place until it was all confirmed and we knew what was happening so eventually we were on the way home my mom was crying she doesn't remember how she got home I think she was just in shock and we phoned the GP we sent her all the scans and then she's like no you do you do have a brain tumor so then she said that we should go to her offices the next day so we went there at 8 o'clock the next morning and then she looked again at the scan she's like okay no go home pack your bags I'm gonna admit you into hospital so she called up all the doctors she admitted me into Sunning Hill Hospital so I was there I think it was the Friday and then I was admitted other the Friday or the Saturday and then already the Tuesday May the 13th that was when I went in for my operation the day before that I had an angiogram done and it was unsuccessful because of all the swelling that the optic the optic nerve was swollen the tumor was just causing too much chaos so that was unsuccessful so then the next day I went in for my operation it was 11 hours and ironically this happened when I was 11 so yeah kind of funny a lot of people just at the mention of tumor would not find anything funny so I'm amazed just let's just clarify there what kind of a tumor was it was it cancerous no so they didn't know if it was cancerous so often operation they sent it in for testing but it came back negative so it wasn't cancerous or anything it's apparently a really rare tumor it's called an epindendoma I think that's okay yeah it's like kind of one of those situations where it's one in a hundred kids will get this tumor and the doctor was literally he he doesn't he doesn't have an answer to how it came across me like is it a generic thing maybe he'd like it's it's that rare that they don't know how someone would pick up a tumor like that okay how big was it I mean they were scrabbling around in your brain for 11 hours I mean how big was this thing the tumor was about I think it was four or five centimeters big yeah I know my scar I had about 37 stitches he like cuts open by the hairline I guess so you can't really see the scar but it's quite big okay so now there they go crack your skull open like an egg and fish around in there and remove a tumor thank goodness not cancerous when it was out and then they they sort of showed you up again what was it like I mean you we live in this must have been terrifying to be honest I was sedated most of the time because since it was like a head surgery they said that there was gonna be a lot of pain and everything so I had a lot of wacky hallucinations some of them were really weird but like just what I can remember from hospital is it's off like fragmented I remember sometimes waking up I remember the hallucinations and because I like because my vision was affected by this operation like I don't it was all kind of dark to me so what I can kind of picture is like kind of like shadowy because you know I couldn't really see I think my vision then was a bit worse than it is now so I think because the optic nerve had a bit of time to heal over the years it's it's better but not so not great okay so it was terrifying yeah let's let's talk about this quickly though because you have this operation and it all happened fairly quickly and obviously they had to operate to remove that tumor to relieve the pressure on your optic nerve but you went in because of vision problems and and as I said when I when I got a mail from you it said blind motivational speaker and I know like I felt like an idiot this morning typing to you saying my microphone has a problem or like David she told you she was a blind motivational speaker you know and I don't I don't Braille or anything like that how bad is your vision how much vision do you have so before my operation I also started kind of having blackouts like I would my vision would just go black and then we'd come back a few seconds later so I was kind of fast started I just used my reading for I just use my glasses for reading and then after the operation the doctor said because of the swelling done by the tumor on the optic nerve my actual optic nerve is damaged so he what I have is called optic atrophy and I'm proclaimed legally blind because of how bad my vision is like there's obviously there's a whole rainbow I guess of blindness because there's different types of blindness so my vision right now my central vision so out of the pupils of your eyes it's completely black and then it's kind of like pinpricks of lights that's kind of there like hundreds of them so I don't have my brains kind of trying to fill in the gaps or something it's not been doing a very good job but anyway and then my peripheral visions out of the whites of your eyes but only the outer parts I would say it's extremely blurry to the point where I don't have depth perception or well I'm colorblind because everything just fades into everything else so I won't be able to make out a step or a glassdoor a pole I actually ran into a pole when I was 12 and had to get stitches so that was fun I can I can imagine you know and when it's we can sort of talk about this in a light-hearted manner but I mean here you are a young lady you're sort of hitting your teenage years and suddenly everything that that people that are sighted take for granted is gone from you I know a lot of people that would have right then in there put their hands up in the air and say alright can't do this can't see can't do anything so I'm not going to do anything more and yet you you haven't done that one of the most immediate challenges though I would imagine is when it comes to dating how do you know that you you know if you if you're dating somebody good-looking do you have to does somebody have to tell you yes I have like my wing people my best friend he always he's like hey Jess looks as a chick you can figure out the personality good good well listen there we're gonna dive a bit more into into the rest of your story and why you do what you do right now when we come back this is what's involved my special guest is a Jessica Peter and what a wonderful story and just what she does is fantastic more from Jess when we come back in just a bit you're listening to what's involved with David Watts have you been to our website check it out www.what'sinvolved.com and while you're there click on the coffee mug icon and by David a cup of coffee they'll love it and we're back what's involved it is my special guest is Jessica Peter and we're talking about her story what happened how she dealt with it and what led to her wanting to become a motivational I don't like the word motivational so much I prefer inspirational because to me you know motivate you'd somebody motivates you they can come in there and they can make you all hyped up and excited and then the next Monday you go back to what you were doing and nothing's changed inspirational speaking however is something that sticks this is just my opinion so you've obviously finished school Jess yeah did you did you stay at a normal school or did you have to go to a school for visually impaired people I was told to go to the school of the blind but I was very determined and comfortable staying in my mainstream school so the school is actually really kind enough to you know try and figure out ways to keep me there and work with me to help me through the education because this obviously happened in grade 5 so it was finishing primary school then into high school so the school did do a lot like they installed TV screens that connected to the smart boards so I had this mini TV screen on my desk where I was a lot closer and then with the vision that I do have I could kind of make out what was being written on the board I have when I studied my scribe I had a scribe that went with me to school so my scribe would literally read all my notes onto an audio recording on my phone and then that's how I would study like speeches or test exams and then I had extra time for my test and exams because reading took me a lot longer and also with diagrams because I did physics so metric I know I know I am I am can I just can I just tell you something is another part of what we do is we do these textbooks and and we're not doing a whole lot of explainer videos for a company called docentia so they do a lot of these textbooks so I'm doing the voices for these videos that they're making and I look at some of that physics stuff and I'm like oh there is no way now you tell me you do it and you have impaired sight wow okay all right so let's move along a little bit you managed to finish high school where did this desire to talk to people about it because you come across and just talking to you know you come across as a as a very bubbly vibrant confident person which if you were to first learn Jessica's blind you would you would think that they that you wouldn't be all of these things you know and I know a lot of people go when they hear that you blind they suddenly talk very slowly to you for some reason I'm not sure what that's all about so I think it was around last year June when I started up with the whole idea of becoming a speaker so I actually started University last year at the University of Pretoria and I was doing foundation-based teaching but it was all online because of the whole lockdown situation and social distancing so I was always finished with my work like I would do work ahead but that's like I'd be done by 11 in the morning or something like that like it was crazy so I was really bored in the afternoon so I needed like a hobby or something and then I was like okay maybe you know maybe speaking isn't you know it's actually a good idea and me and my mom sat down on the couch one day and then she found a trainer and then that was just kind of you know helped me structure a speech just to get me started and I was like okay you know what I'm gonna do it because like since my operation I'd always be the one getting helped and needing assistance constant aid all the time and just to have the capability of helping others it's it makes me feel a lot more independent and empowered like just within myself just to be able to help others because there's not many like situations where I'm going to be able to help others because I can't see so just having this kind of help over others or to guide others in different situations at least being able to do that that's very ironic so yeah just having that capability to help others instead of people always helping me that kind of also was an impact on why I did this. So what do you speak on Jess and what what sort of is your is your main topic is it is it you know overcoming obstacles what do you talk about? So I based my whole speech on like my disability or disabilities but I've kind of learned to branch into different areas so I will use like all all that I've learned in my life going from able body to you know gaining a disability I take all those lessons and then I apply it to different situations that other people may be in so I've done corporate worlds I've done schools I've done award ceremonies so I take my disability as kind of a main idea and then I bring in all these different situations or circumstances that other people want me to address and then I can just apply it all these different things so one of my main topics is overcoming obstacles and overcoming disabilities or just general problems in life and also you know taking an empathetic approach in life because it was like you said when people figure out that I'm blind they they don't really take an empathetic approach it's more sympathy it's more shame rather than believing that I am capable of doing everything that everybody else can do. Yeah I would imagine I mean I've grown up I had I had some of my challenges people know my story I ripped at the top of my mouth the roof of my mouth open when I was four and I was told I was never gonna speak again and if I did speak I was gonna have a speech defect and the only problem with that whole situation is nobody told me that so I didn't know I wasn't supposed to speak so I just carried on you know and I've got I've got a sister who's been born with a disability as well so I know what it's like I know how people treat you specifically with with my sister you know they'll see her and they'll see any wheelchair and then as I said I made the joke earlier but then everybody talks a lot slower to her and it's all shame and she doesn't want sympathy that's that's not what she wants so I think the whole empathy side of it is is amazing I was I was chatting to somebody the other day in terms of where our corporate worlds are at the moment and that's one thing that we are lacking in a big way in corporate South Africa and and I think it started before COVID but COVID's got a role to play is we've lost that empathy we've lost that love for our fellow man and I think if I understand you correctly that's the kind of thing you talk about yeah just the whole general idea of humanity and it doesn't just need to be towards you know people with disabilities it's just people in general because yeah it's like you said like people have become so I don't know like more self-aware of themselves rather than others and it's it's just not normal anymore to reach out so yeah absolutely now I would agree with you 100% and and the problem is and I've spoken to a lot of people that are high up in various corporate institutions and they say that as well you know it's it's very much a me first dog eat dog world out there and people yeah people are suffering and people's mental health is taking a hammering and yeah comes Jess to go hey guys you know I've got this challenge with with my vision and I've had all these challenges they cut my head open and whipped out whipped out a tumor and hopefully not too much of the brain because you know that's that's the thing I always imagine them using a spoon and just scooping it out so I never really but let's let's we're gonna have a break now when we come back though let's let's dive in a bit more to the whole concept of empathy and and humanity because I think that is is incredibly important so we'll talk about that when we come back it is what's involved my special guest Jessica Peter motivational no inspirational speaker that's what I'm gonna call it from now on and we'll be back in just a bit we'll be right back with more what's involved David would love to hear from you to leave a voice message visit what's involved calm and click drop me a voice note and we're back with my special guest Jessica Peter so just before the break Jess I said I'm fascinated about the fact that you can can stand in front of people and talk about things like empathy and humanity now I know that you spoke to a very big corporate not so long ago that a that a mutual friend of ours I think put in a good word for you it was Liberty wasn't it that you that you started what was your topic for Liberty now so for Liberty I kind of also branched out into the whole context of the you know job world and everything like that and kind of basing my speech on not only just daily struggles with a disability or any struggle but also in the workplace like you know sometimes you you get up on a Monday morning there's no coffee and then you have this stack of paperwork that you have to do but you just need to kind of find the motivation to get through your week get to the it's the Friday vibes that you want to reach so I kind of also used my disability and my whole journey to kind of apply to the corporate world and to maybe issues that may be in the corporate world because I know sometimes it's a financial struggle you know like there's load shedding there's all these different economical problems that are happening petrol is going up like these all of these different things that people will have you know it's all new I wouldn't say new but it's you you're gonna have to get used to these things the world keeps changing it's might not be going your way but you you just have to learn to deal with it and look the positive side and try and just push through to where you want to be now talk to me about that for Jess herself because I know and and I don't consider myself disabled in any way other than being a radio presenter but I wake up some mornings and I think you know what I'd actually just like to stay in bed I don't want to face the world I don't want to do anything this morning I had I had a an issue I was supposed to be recording some voiceovers early in the morning I like to do it very early because I get up very early and we have a young Rockefeller puppy okay and they all went running out this morning when we let them out at four o'clock to go now and explore the world and bark and tell everybody who the boss is and he ran straight into the swimming pool at four o'clock so I had to fish him out I got him out and he was sort of between my legs now I still had my pajamas and my slippers on at this stage yeah and then he proceeded to shake himself dry I was soaked at four o'clock in the morning and I had a little temper tantrum and I simply refused to do my voiceovers now that that you can you can say that's just me being a prima donna which it probably is but these are things that happen to all people and you must have challenges I mean you know I get up in the morning my routine is when I do get dressed you know I take for granted that I can shave and then brush my teeth and have a shower and then just whip the first thing that's on the top of the pile of clothing in the cupboard and get dressed and I don't have to worry about whether I look good or not because it's my it's my voice that people want and I'm old and grumpy anyway but you are a young lady how does that kind of stuff does it get you down not really to be honest obviously like the whole I'd say the thing that hit me the hardest like as a struggle something that I can't do like normal people is get a driver's license I went to my one of my close friends birthdays like his 18th birthday and then his parents surprised him with the car and then you know we all went outside they were clapping you know congratulating everyone was super super happy and then it kind of hit me then that I wasn't gonna get an opportunity like that so that was probably the thing just in general life that hit me the most and also going to parties maybe and you know people have a good time they do weird stuff that you know it's it's funny but sometimes those visual comedy kind of things I miss out on so I think that also gets me down because then I kind of feel like I'm fading into the background and not really there with everyone but things like brushing my teeth or just I don't know getting changed well you know getting dressed in the morning I kind of I figured out ways to do those things so it doesn't really get me down like with my clothing I've learned all the colors of each different clothing item that I own and then which pair matches which pair even with shoes I've memorized which shoes should go with each piece of clothing it's like my whole life is basically based on memorizing things yeah that's that's basically what it is but I think this is the gist of what I'm getting at Jess is you've got this disability which most people let's be honest with would literally want to collapse any heap with and go that's it life as I know it is over you have decided no you talk about memorizing clothes memorizing your shoes what what do you think is it that makes you want to do this how does Jess motivate Jess I've never actually thought about that I don't know I'm just not one of those people who lets themselves think about you know all the bad all the what-ifs I kind of ever since my operation I don't know people say that I changed after my operation like my personality my attitude everything changed to like a more positive thing I don't know I don't know exactly how much it did change but they say I became a lot more badly I became a lot more positive like I was just a more happier person I'm not saying when I like before the operation I was depressed and sad and whatever but afterwards I just had this more determined attitude so I think having that I just kept like I always push myself to do the best that I can and you know figure out ways to be independent because I've learned that a lot of people just expected me to kind of not be able to do things so yeah I don't know I just push myself to always prove people wrong I guess that would be my answer well that's that's not a bad answer at all I mean I think you know being in your mom's in your mom's place when her daughter says I want to be a motivational speaker your mother must just about fallen off the chair not really it was kind of like a team decision she's actually called my momager she has that position yes so we kind of we were just like speaking about it and then I'm like maybe it's not such a bad idea and this is like so do you want to do it I'm like sure why not and then yeah there it was I think that's that's incredible how's it going in in this in this because corporate speaking and inspirational speaking is a cutthroat industry I can tell you because I've been on the fringes of it how is it going for you are you are you getting nice bookings are you enjoying it are you getting good feedback yes I am well okay starting with the bookings I've actually done quite a few my first talk was in August last year and up till now I would say I've done maybe 15 talks 20 talks I don't know somewhere around there so a lot of people are booking me and I've actually started noticing that there's a lot more recommendations from other people to schools or companies and they now everyone's starting to kind of contact me instead of me contacting them so the word is getting out which I'm really really happy to see and then just the general feedback from people it's I think this is what I love most about being a speaker for people is to hear the feedback and to see the difference that I'm actually making because I've actually reached people all around the globe so I have people on Instagram that I've kind of become friends with with my social media in America in Italy in London like all over the world and they all the feedback that I'm getting it's all positive and you know just gratitude for maybe putting a voice out there to disabilities or helping them gain the confidence to you know kind of come to terms with their disability and then the feedbacks from the talks you know I'd like to get brought ups sent back to me to see you know what must I change what must I maybe improve on and a lot of it is positive and you know considering that I'm relatively new I didn't expect all this positive feedback but it's just all the feedback it's it's it's mental it's I don't even know like I'm just so grateful and it makes me so happy you know I think it is to be honest just having chatted to you and not having met you in person is I think people can pick up on your passion and your enthusiasm and your positiveness and I think it's like this breath of fresh air and I think corporate South Africa needs it I also applaud you on going out to the schools because I think you know let's be honest schools may not be where you're gonna make a lot of money but schools will certainly be where you can make a huge impact and I think you enjoy the schools as well don't you yeah like I try and make it interactive for the learners so I have like concentration grabbers so I have a song that I kind of found when I was you know coming through high school and whatever it's called the champion so I use that in my speeches to make sure that everyone's focused I teach them the most important lyrics that I got that I think were the most important lyrics to like help them remember and then I make them repeated to me so that they can you know kind of start to find something that'll help them you know stay motivated and inspired like that song did for me so and just speaking to learners that's where I wanted to kind of start my journey with because of the experiences I had through school because you know kids weren't very nice towards me having a disability so I want to try and you know try and make a difference and not let other people go through the same things that I did but I also do want to reach out into corporate because I know there's a lot of people in corporate that have these you know high platforms but maybe somebody under them is too scared to say something or just you know any issues it's I just want to try and address them because people think that it's such a taboo subject to talk about but I think it just should be a general thing like a general conversation that you should have and addressing schools especially teaching learners from a young age about these subjects it makes it a lot easier when they grow up so yeah wonderful righty-ho my special guest is Jessica Peter this is what's involved when we come back wrapping it up with Jess and finding out how you can get hold of her and maybe get it to your school your business all of that and more when we come back it is what's involved this is what's involved don't forget to subscribe and leave a review more next and we're back wrapping it up what's involved it is Jessica Peter has been my special guest so Jess before I get into where we can contact you and how we can contact you I'll ask all of my guests what's next for Jess so with my speaking I want to try and grow it to an insanely huge form I know that's maybe a big step but I believe in setting high goals so just expanding my motivational speaking reaching out to more schools more corporate industries I I don't I don't want to stay just here in South Africa like I want to be able to have opportunities to go speak in America and Europe you know like all over the world I want to try and address as many people as possible so yeah I just want to grow my motivational speaking help as many people as I can I'm thinking actually I kind of started looking into it but not properly I want to try and maybe start an organization to raise funds to maybe help other people with disabilities that can't afford like the machinery or the magnifiers technology that I was able to get so maybe starting a foundation like that yeah I'm just growing maybe getting a book out or something I'm really yeah optimistic about it and it's all about audacious goals and I firmly believe in that but I was gonna ask you about a book because I think a book would be brilliant I know people if you ever need any help with that but let's quickly talk about if somebody wants to get hold of you and book you for either a school or a corporate event or whatever what is the best way to get hold of you so for bookings I would generally recommend my email that's flying one blind at Gmail com otherwise they can also book through my websites which is www.flyingblindsa.com otherwise my Instagram is X underscore flying blind underscore X and also Facebook which is just flying blind okay so it's let's stick with one because I need to be able to repeat that so the website is a great place to go to find out more about you so it's www.flyingblindsa.com there we go flying blind essay all one word flying blind essay.com you can get hold of Jess there and she gets back to you very quickly I must tell you I'm very impressed with the with the speed that you reply anyway listen wraps it up for this edition of What's Involved. Jess thank you so much for taking the time out and having a chat to us and I know you're going to be doing great things I know we're probably going to be chatting again and we'll look back on this particular discussion and go wow those were the days I wish you all the very very best thank you so so so much thank you for having me absolute pleasure there we go as I said wraps it up for this edition of What's Involved to each and every one of you look after yourselves take care and thank you for listening thanks for listening to What's Involved we hope this episode inspires you to find your passion and live your dream don't forget to rate review and share the podcast and to see what's happening what's going on and what's coming follow what's involved on Facebook and Twitter at What's Involved thanks again for listening.