Today, as this is the first day of my 100-day self-imposed challenge to write one blog article per day, I guess the best way to kick this off is by going back to point one of my journey in living this life as a totally blind person diagnosed with Lupus.
This major turning point in my life happened in 2006. I was 17, just a month away from my 18th birthday, when I was supposed to step into adulthood and independence. Ironically, that’s not what happened. Instead, I got sick, became totally blind, and it was like going through another round of birth pains, started to live life again like a new born – very dependent, needed so much assistance, and I have to relearn how to live life all over again, but this time, as a blind person.
To say these were the darkest days of my life is an understatement. Yes, everything was dark, though not pitch black, but it felt even darker because I couldn’t find my way forward. It was a vast unknown. I had no idea how to live a life without sight.
Through divine intervention, however, I found my way out of that endless tunnel of gloom. Slowly, I emerged and discovered the new life waiting. A life without physical colors, but a colorful one that made me experience life in different hues, in different perspectives, a different kind of life in that same world I had always known.
The biggest realization I had at the end of that tunnel. Living life as a blind person was never my choice, but living in misery was something I could control. I could either dwell on everything I had lost or move forward with a grateful heart, embracing all the new insights I had gained. Yes, I lost my sight, my dream of becoming a nurse, my love for driving, and my passion for drawing. But I also gained new skills, new friends, and the most precious gift I could ever receive in this lifetime—a deep relationship with my God. And that relationship? It made everything better.