This week was hectic. My bread-and-butter job is working for a not-for-profit that finds employment for people who are blind or visually impaired. We do this with the help of over 100 different affiliate/associate not-for-profit agencies (NPA’s) throughout the US.

Some of you may know this program by AbilityOne or by the Skilcraft logo. This logo is used to promote products and services manufactured and offered by blind people. I give you this background only to tell you about the week-long conference held every year in the DC area.

This annual Training Conference and Expo, hosted by NIB and the National Association for the Employment of People Who Are Blind (NAEPB), brings together hundreds of representatives from NIB associated nonprofit agencies, industry leaders, federal customers and agency representatives, and other partners to learn, network, and exchange ideas.

Of note for me was the award given honoring the Employee of the Year. The person chosen was a gentleman from an NPA out of New York. His last name is Onikiienko, and he is from Ukraine. He lost his vision by the age of eight but despite what people and the world told him he couldn’t do, he became a Lawyer.

Onikiienko got married and began raising a family and by all accounts was living a good life. Then in 2022 Russia invaded Ukraine, war ensued, and he and his family were forced to flee. They sought asylum here in the US. Onikiienko and is family lost all their possessions, he didn’t speak any English, and he is totally blind in a new land with no job.

Fortunately, he did have some family here that he could stay with. Through what many would consider insurmountable odds Onikiienko found a rehabilitation center for the blind learned English retrained into a new career and is now receiving an award for Employee of the Year.

What occurred to me more than anything else was Onikiienko has been applying the principles of MKE all his life. Obstacles are just problems that have solutions. He was faced with fear, that he didn’t let it paralyze him but rather wash over him.

I got a chance to meet this extraordinary individual at the conference. He has a quiet confidence about him that draws people to him.

I must admit this conference kept me so busy and I was falling behind on my exercises that I thought maybe I should exit the class and try it again later. After hearing Onikiienko’s testimony and listening to lesson 3 again I realized that is subby trying to keep me locked in my old self.

And I am at the point “where the pain of staying where I am out ways the pain of change” so I have no choice but to keep pushing forward to unlock the new me.