Perception

This is a picture of my eyes, no makeup, no photo shop just what you get when you look at me.  All my life I've known that i look different.  When I was a little girl I was teased for being different.  I didn't do well in sports due to my lack of sight and my lack of depth perception.  I was good at other things like art and making others feel accepted.  I'm not going to lie and say it didn't hurt and I didn't care because I certainly did. Lets face it we all notice when someone is different than us, its simply human nature. The thing is that no matter if I had a disability or different looking eyes I would of been teased for something because that's just what kids do.  It is a right of passage or sorts and teasing happens in every school in every town across the world.  No matter what parents or teachers do its going to happen.  So I learned how to adapt to my environment, to get along with everyone.  I stood up for those who were like me, kids who didnt fit the mold of the popular child.  When kids would tease me.  I let them know that there unkind words had no impact on me.  As I got older the teasing stopped and the compliments started coming in.  People would tell me I had the coolest eyes.  One day a girl even told me she wished she had wicked beautiful eyes like I had.  I was dumb founded.  The situation seem to have changed over a Summer.  What I realized is it wasn't the other people/kids who had changed, it was me.  I was proud of who I was, how I looked and I carried my head high. The other kids seem to notice the change in me.   I put up boundaries and ceased to allow people to talk to me that way.   In my twenties I moved to Florida.  while searching for the new eye doctor i came across a doctor who thought I needed cosmetic contact lenses so my eyes would look normal.  It was insulting and I got up out of the examination chair, told the doctor he was insensitive and that I was alright with how my eyes looked. I promptly walked out of the eye doctors office.  Then I found myself a new doctor.   Now that I'm in my thirties, I no longer get upset when someone has an unkind thing to say about my eyes.  I forgive them for they know not what they do or say.  I can be the bigger person today.  When people ask me about my eyes and they do all the time.  I'm honest.  I have Congenital Glaucoma, I'm legally blind and I'm happy  I'm grateful for the way I am, because this is how God intended me to be. My disability has made me who I am and I wouldn't change that for anything.  My struggles with a disability have made me a compassionate person who loves her life.  My eyes are beautiful and nobody can convince me otherwise.