"You've been diagnosed with Vogt Koyanagi Harada, Chorioretinitis, and Choroidal Neovascularazation Membranes." A statement on a piece of paper administered to me monthly by my ophthalmologist. Any of you that have probably just read that are either one, thinking what in the world do those words mean or two, you skipped over them because they are quite bizarre. Well, if you are a part of that first group, they are all eye diseases that directly cause problems in the retina or the choroid. Most of the eye diseases are characterized by their blindeness causing inflammation of the two parts of the eye mentioned. As a young teen, I have been blessed and cursed with the eye disease that were previousy mentioned. I can definately say that the diseases have changed my perceptions of life.

I know you may be thinking, what the h***, how are you writing this article if you have all of those diseases? Well, the fact of the matter is, is that I am almost one hundred percent healed. The diseases first became a problem when I was in sixth grade. I was sent home one day during school because it looked like I had pink eye.(At the time, pink eye was an epidemic in schools around my city.) A few days later, I was just blind as a bat. time progressed, and I went to over nine eye specialists in the course of about a month and I was finally undergoing treatment to get my eye sight back The road to recovery was extremely turbulent physically and emotionally. I can tell you right now, that I did not think I was ever going to be able to see again. However, with the help of medication and patience, here I am today healthier and better than ever.

After going blind more than three times, and this last time being the simplest complication out of the three, I can proudly say that I am a changed person. After going through such a rollercoaster of an experience, I have had a few eccentric beliefs come out of the whole process.

First of all, cherish your sense and take good care of them! As simple and annoying as it sounds, do it! If that means wear sunglasses, do it! If that means turn the volume down justa  little bit, do just that. Throughout the entire process, I learned how much, we as people, take our eyesight for granted. I mean it's used for everything; seeing how you look, reading, writing, and more. Secondly, I feel that every person has a path in life they have to take... and either directly or indirectly, they will find something that will cause them to go down that path. Because of the eye disease I have, I decided to take the path of becoming an ophthalmologist and helping people and children suffering from the same problems. Lastly, jsut because someone is sick, does NOT mean that they do not have feelings. As I went through this experience, I had people come up to me every day during the recovery process to ask me, "How many fingers am I honding up?" Which is probably one of the most humiliating things that I was never been able to answer at the time. However, if you keep these three things in mind, you are are on your way to living a good life.