January 17, 2004

My name is Samantha Parker. I’m twelve years old, and live in Hong Kong. Three years ago my life took a dramatic turn. I was going to school like any other day, but that day I was involved in a car crash. I’ll never forget that incident, because I’m a different person after that. All I can remember is the gushing blood running down my face. While I was bleeding to death doctors were working on me like crazy. After they spent a hours working on me they finally found some hope that I would live. The only difference was that now I had to live as a blind person.

My life has truly changed from then onwards. It seemed that my body betrayed me, by turning me blind which always left me crying with tears. I used to be ashamed that I was blind, and I thought about committing suicide everyday. I was a child who already had seen the beauty of the world and then suddenly one day it vanished.In the beginning needed help to be walked everywhere, even for the bathroom. I hated being pitied, and my family and friends couldn’t understand that I felt like I was alone in the world, without anybody on earth who could understand my feelings. My friends no more hung around me, as they thought I was a freak.

My parents felt that I should to go to a special club for blind children but I thought the club was boring. I wasn’t the only child who thought that. I made a friend there named Conner who also thought that the club was boring and a waste of time. Learning sign language and how to read Braille was all we ever learned at the club. I just couldn’t get sign language and how to read Braille, and it wasn'’t very comforting to try it repeatedly.

Over time I became real close to Conner, and he managed to convince me that being blind isn’t the end of the world. He also taught me that the club may be boring but it was something we needed in our lives. Three years after my accident, I went to see my grandfather who was admitted in a hospital. My grandfather told me that he was dying anyway, so he wanted to donate his cornea to me. I knew my grandfather loved me, but I never knew he loved me so much. I guess being blind makes you realize how much people love you. As a confused teenager I was going through the heart breaking process of losing my grandfather but winning back the eyesight I had lost three years ago.

You always fuss over little things like your hair being messed up; however, one never realizes the importance of major body part until it is lost. Two weeks after I visited my grandfather, I had my cornea transplant.

I’ve got my eyesight back and it changed my life again. Having my eyesight back is great and I can see the beauty of the world once again. My ambition for my future career is to open an inexpensive school for blind children. Being blind myself has made me realize that blind children have feelings too. Blind children should live a normal life but it’s impossible with all the prejudiced people in the world. It’ s impossible for blind children to live a normal life with constant sympathy by the people. Conner died without ever knowing how beautiful the world really is. He knew the world as a place filled without hope and love for blind children. I lost a great friend, and yet I’ve gained a new inspiration to follow. I hope that if I open a school for blind children it will change a childs life forever. Maybe with that school, children can live with more normal emotions.

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