Spence's journey began when he was overseas at age 9, visiting his grandfather in Ireland. He was horsing around with a shotgun, aiming it at a pile of cow dung.

"I had my head against the gun, like I saw cowboys doing it in movies, or like Ralphie in A Christmas Story," recalled Spence, "and I literally shot my eye out. The gun bucked hard against me, against my face, and while I didn't lose my eye at that point, it was traumatized and I was declared legally blind, despite having some vision in the right eye." (His left eye is healthy.)