Personal Narrative: L Is For Life Changing

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L is For Life Changing July 9th, 2015, two days before my thirteenth birthday. An ordinary Thursday in the middle of summer. However, on this ordinary day, my life changed forever. I had an eye doctor appointment that day, as I had been having trouble seeing for quite a long time. My dad took me, I was reading The Clockwork Prince the whole drive there. We got into the waiting area, we were about a half hour early. I admired the picture of two little girls running in an open glade, while listening to a children’s movie play in the background, in a toy room next door, before returning to my book. I don’t know how long it was, but it was over an hour before we were admitted into an exam room. The exam went normally enough… until I failed the …show more content…

“It is a genetic disorder,” my doctor said, “You will gradually lose your central vision.” Those words were like an echo, repeating over and over in my mind. “Lose your central vision. Lose your central vision. Lose your central vision.” The unceasing chorus was rattling around in my mind, yet no matter how long it resounded, I couldn’t believe it. That meant that one day, I would be blind. Not completely blind albeit, but blind none the less. Everything around me seemed to slow down. My heartbeat sped up to a racing speed. My vision went slightly blurry as my eyes filled with tears from the sudden shock my brain had just experienced. Nothing made sense, my inner turmoil was so overpowering that I couldn’t make left or right of what was being said around me. I couldn’t escape it. It chased me back to the farthest recesses of my brain, searing the dreaded thoughts into my mind. It was horrible, inescapable, and mind numbing, all functional thought processes seemed to cease. The doctor told me that it was an extraordinarily lite case, and probably wouldn’t affect me for many years. He suggested to wear a hat and UV protection sunglasses whenever I went outside, as the UV light would make my vision loss accelerate. I was overjoyed that this disease would have little or no affect on me for years to come, but at the same time, I couldn’t help but feel miserable and sorry for myself, because I was going …show more content…

My mom was already at the place where we were holding the rehearsal, as she was in the play as well, but she didn’t know yet about the malady that I now suffer from. Once I got in the house for play practice, my mom asked me how the appointment went, and if I was getting glasses. I told her, “It could have gone better. No glasses, because glasses won’t help.” My voice broke at that point, for I knew that what I was about to say would cause my mother great distress. “I was diagnosed with Stargardt’s, the same as Jimmy,” I managed to gasp through the great lump in my throat and the burning sensation at the back of my eyes. Jimmy is my older brother, who was diagnosed with the same disease 15 years ago. The look of sorrow and distress that then crossed my mother’s face will be engrained in my memory forever more. My mom hugged me and hugged me, as we both cried. Her warm embrace was the most comforting thing I had felt for a very long time, and most welcome, as my ordeal was still fresh in my mind. I bet we stood there for ten minutes, hugging and crying, because we both knew, that there was nothing we could do. This disease I was told, will eventually reach a maximum point of vision loss, can’t be fixed by glasses, and has no

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