I started to wonder how someone blind ever dared to even write; when everyone and their grandmother know that you need sight in order to write. But he was firm in his creed—he was a man without sight, but not without vision.

1. Orphan’s Point of View
When he came up the stage wearing shades, guided by an attendant and a
cane, I told myself, “Here we go again with the motivational shiz.” He was
introduced as Dennis Cunanan Ilaw, the blind writer. His sterling
credentials elicited gasps of awe and admiration from the crowd, but I
merely scoffed at them all. I knew that it was the school administration’s
another attempt at ‘fixing’ and ‘straightening up’ our lives—we are a bunch
of juvenile delinquents stuck in a rehabilitation center, after all. Frankly, I
think they can shove their efforts down their throats, because the only
rehab I need is to get out of this god-forsaken place.
I hated everything about the HeLoves Foundation for the Youth, or
whatever buzz they call the institution that took us in. I hated the
pretentiousness of it all—the way the volunteers always smile and hug us
and say that everything will be all right when we knew it wouldn’t be; the
bright, colorful pastel colors of the walls of each rooms; most of all, I hated
the weekly talks and retreats they made us go to, in their attempt to reform
us ‘holistically’. They invite speaker after speaker to talk to us and guide us,
and quite frankly, I’m sick and tired of it all. This blind writer Dennis

2. Cunanan was the latest noob they were able to trick into speaking for us.
There is no hope in this screwed-up world. There’s no point trying to make
us think and believe otherwise. I don’t know how they could even begin
to think about giving hope to a bunch of kids who were born with one foot
on the grave, after all.
Some of the kids are dying with some rare, unknown disease. Others are
withering away because of cancer. Others are merely taken in to get them
out of the streets. I’ve heard before that the Foundation took in a kid who
was trained to become a killer. He was a member of the Mafia and was
caught trying to assassinate a powerful business mogul. When the
Volunteers got hold of him, they went in with their ‘spiritual guns’ blazing
and made it their life’s mission to turn him into an upstanding citizen. They
succeeded in brainwashing him. It only took him four retreats and five
power talks.
And then Dennis Cunanan Ilaw started to talk, and I was forced to listen
because of the sheer conviction in his voice and the powerful passion that
oozes out with every word. I started to wonder how someone blind ever
dared to even write; when everyone and their grandmother knows that you
need sight in order to write. But he was firm in his creed—he was a man
without sight, but not without vision.