Yesterday I woke up not being able to see my mother’s face, plus my own reflection in the mirror. This didn’t impact me because it’s been like that forever from what I can remember, it’s a usual feeling for me. I shower, change, and get ready for school like always, I walk to the living room making sure that I don’t trip over anything. My backpack sits on my couch like always, I try to get a hold of it but fail because the room is dark and so is my backpack. Once I do manage to put it on – I make my way outside with the hope that one day I won’t have to rely on my dad to take me to school, the dentist and doctor appointments – seeing that I’m about to turn 18.

My day goes on. At school I try to look for my three close friends. The only way I’m able to see them is by their clothing. One friend wears a bright red hoodie. The another has a blue backpack, and the other wears red shoes. If by any chance they wear something else, I wouldn’t be able to see them until lunch time came. When I do find them, they would always put a random number of fingers to their neck and go on to ask me, “How many fingers am I holding?” I didn’t mind this, but for outsiders it might seem as if they were mocking or making fun of me.

I go to all my classes, always sitting up front. Some might never miss anything that appears on the board but in my case, I still can’t see! During lunch my friends and I go get pizza, so we walk for a couple of minutes. I seem to never see birds or planes on the sky. Sometimes I feel the need to hold on to one of my friends’ backpacks as to not trip or run into someone. I either walk in the front or the back. We almost always come late to class if the pizza place is busy.

The day was a bit weird though, because my dad texted me, “Are you ready?” and I think to myself if I did anything that would cause him to say such thing. Soon I realize that today I get my contacts. I get very excited and hope that time would pass by faster so I can go and get them. The bell rings and shortly after I’m on my way to get my contacts. They make us wait for about 30 minutes and it felt like an eternity to me. Once the professional came in the room and helped me put on the contacts, I felt a ‘huge’ improvement with just one of them in. I could see my dad’s face. I could see the face of the woman that helped me put them on. I could see that she had bright pretty blue eyes. I could see the texture on my fingertips. I could see the texture on the wall. Sadly there were no windows, so I had to wait to see the world, but I have kept a mental image of how the mountains looked like before. It took me some time to get used to this type of vision, but once I did it felt very good. Once we were done with the training me and my dad walked outside and then it struck me, how beautiful this world is. I could see people walking on the sidewalks, I could see the texture on the mountains, I could see birds flying, and I could see the different textures on object I brought a book with me to see just how better my vision had gotten and I was impressed. I went from being able to read the book inches away to what it seemed like a mile away. While on our way home driving on the highway I saw the little lines on the road. You might know those really good quality videos they play between commercials, and yes that’s how I felt on my way home. I saw the texture on the trees. I saw that some leaves had a spiky like shape.

When I got home my mother was waiting for me there. As I walked in the room, I just stood there with no reaction. I could finally see my mother’s face. I went and hugged her and as I looked into her eyes, I started crying at the sight of my mother. Then I look at my dog. It felt like I could count his individual hairs. As I looked at my food; the rice looked so sharp as if it could cut my mouth when I ate. I went on the see old photos. While staring at the photos it felt like I was meeting new people, even though I knew who they were. I saw my little self and how I used to play with my neighbor’s kid, which made me realize just how better cameras and photos had gotten.

My time with the contacts was ending because I could only have them on for 5 hours. I felt like 5 hours wasn’t enough. I wanted more. I still took them off because I don’t want my eyes to get worse. I went to sleep and woke up an hour earlier than usual, mainly because of how long it would take me to put the contacts on.

Today my daily morning routine repeats as it always had, but this time after managing to put on the contacts, I felt like I would not trip on stuff anymore. I could distinguish my backpack from the background. I could finally walk without having someone to guide me. At school my friends did random finger things, but this time I didn’t reply. I pointed to my eyes and when they saw, they made o’s with their facial features. In classes I could see the white board meaning that I no longer had to rely on taking a picture of the screen with my phone. I could see the board. During lunch time I no longer felt the need to hold on to one of my friends. I could see everyone’s face, and no longer did I need to memorize my friends’ clothing patterns to be able to find them.

I told my teacher and she was so excited for me. That made me feel happy. The bell rang and it was time to go home, but my friends and I always hang out for a little outside next to a tree. Today they thought I was crazy because I was looking at everything. I was just fascinated by how everything around me felt alive, like they too have problems and thing that might be holding them back from doing what they want. I felt like a normal human being. I no longer had to rely on objects or people to guide me, I could finally do them myself. Some days I might still say, “I can’t cause I’m blind”, and some might think that I use it as an excuse to not do normal things. But in reality I just can’t, But this time they replied with” not anymore though”. I think to myself, “Yeah, I’m not blind anymore.” I feel like things like that had become an instinct reply for me, that whenever I couldn’t do something all I could say was that I’m blind. I had to take them off as soon as I got home because I could only wear them for 7 hours. the things repeated themselves, I kept discovering textures, and realizing things that I could before. It was like I was on a different world. It feels amazing… this different way of seeing the world.