Dan Mancina – Owning His Own Vision
“Our biggest weakness can be our biggest strength“ Blah blah.. this sound familiar? Well for Dan Mancina, having gradually lost his vision, the deal was he wasn't messing with his quest and passion for skating. Shit was serious.
Taken from an interview with CNN sports, Dan Mancina states, "I've lost my vision throughout my life." Going onto explain that it wasn't until his mid-20s that his condition started to affect his life on a day-to-day basis. This stopped him from driving and biking.
Mancina, diagnosed with a neurodegenerative eye disease called retinitis pigmentosa faced this huge obstacle in your typical skater mode..refusing to stay down and living his passion for skating no matter what.
Mancina tells CNN sports, "I'm trying to figure out what a blind person is. What a blind person can do." Having skated from the age of 7 and having dreams of being a pro skater, you begin to imagine he wasn't going to give up, and he didn't.
He began to film short videos of his progress, posting them on Instagram and YouTube, and met a new group of people to skate with. This then gave him the confidence he needed to return to the streets. As he said in his interview with CNN, "it just took me actually trying it and doing it and then realizing I can get those things out of it."
What emerged was a sense of purpose in all the trials he faced. Mancina wants to challenge misconceptions about blindness and create spaces where visually impaired people can enjoy skating too.
He states, "I wanted to build the first fully adaptive skatepark designed around visual impairments, so I started a foundation called 'Keep Pushing Incorporated.' Mancina has raised around $40,000 for the park, and after the pouring of concrete this fall, he is in hope the project will continue in a swift manner.
So, what should we take from all this?
A few things. Mancina is what we like to call a living legend, someone who pushes the boundaries for themselves and others. Secondly, believing in yourself more than anyone else is paramount. Thirdly, it's not only you; there is always someone out there going through a potentially even worse circumstance than you face. Be grateful for what is on your plate mb.
