Blindness doesn't hold Wenske back

By Robert Proctor

The Cuero Record

Failure is not an option is a phrase often credited Gene Kranz and the Apollo 13 moon landing. Travis Wenske is another man who certainly takes that saying to heart. Diagnosed as legally blind and living with macular degeneration since he was three-years-old, Wenske didn’t throw in the towel. More over, he has built a career for himself as a massage therapist.

In 2013, Wenske made his way from Victoria to Austin, where he attended Chriss Cole Rehabilitation Center, a school for the legally blind. Being blind, there is different technology available, and Wenske wanted to learn how to use the computer.

“They had another class I attended called career guidance which basically they help you try to find what you want to do with your career, whatever that might be,” Wenske recalled.

It was during his six months at Chriss Cole that Wenske became reacquainted with his ambition to become a licensed massage therapist (LMT).

“When he was in high school, I had discussed massage therapy with him,” Rhonda Sinast recalled, Wenske’s mother.

Having grown up in the car business with his father, Bob Wenske, Travis Wenske knew of the challenges involved with being blind in that business.

“After he graduated and he wasn’t sure what to do, that was brought up again,” Sinast said of becoming a massage therapist. “I knew massage therapy was something he could do. My main concern was him finding a career that could sustain him.”

About four months into the career guidance program at Chriss Cole, Travis Wenske’s teacher let him know that nearby was a top flight massage therapy school.

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