What if you only saw the world through one eye? I do.
I was 16 years old and I went to the DMV to get my license. I stepped up to the counter, filled out my paperwork, and submitted for an eye test. The lovely old lady asked me to put my eyes into the goggles and read the letters.
“E, A, D…” I said, running through the entire chart with my left eye.
“Okay, now with the right,” she asked.
“No problem, but first you have to put the screen up, it’s blank”
“Honey, the screen is up.”
As I moved my left eye into the right eye hole, I realized that yes there were letters in there, and no, I could not see them, not even one little tiny bit.
Why? Since I was a child, I’ve been blind in one eye with a disorder called amblyopia. (from Wiki)
Amblyopia, otherwise known as lazy eye, is a disorder of the visual system that is characterized by poor or indistinct vision in an eye that is otherwise physically normal, or out of proportion to associated structural abnormalities. It has been estimated to affect 1–5% of the population.[2]
The problem is caused by either no transmission or poor transmission of the visual image to the brain for a sustained period of dysfunction or during early childhood. Amblyopia normally only affects one eye, but it is possible to be amblyopic in both eyes if both are similarly deprived of a good, clear visual image. Detecting the condition in early childhood increases the chance of successful treatment.
In a nutshell the connections in my right eye never were fully formed, leaving me with an ability to only perceive light/dark and some shadows, but nothing else. It is also not lazy eye as people commonly know it. My eye does not move around independently. The only way you can tell is that my right eye is slightly more closed than my left, and if I cross my eyes, only my left looks into my nose.
That day at the DMV, I realized that I truly didn’t see the world as everyone else did. My right eye barely functioning I only saw the world from my left. It was quite the realization since I had never given it much thought.
For years the disorder was diagnosed as non-correctable. In case you were wondering, non-correctable means that I had to wear a patch over the good eye in the hopes that it would spur the blind eye into working. Hilarity ensues as I spent hours walking into walls, furniture and anything else that was humanly possible. After a few years, I gave up on the patch and went my marry way.
Doctors said I’d never play sports, or play them well. Don’t they know I’m a miracle baby? Screw them. I went on to play baseball all my life, soccer, basketball and even was a fairly decent hockey goalie, just with the one eye. It didn’t matter to me, it was never an excuse.
This picture represents how I see the world. Put your hand over your right eye and try it for a few minutes, see what I see in my world, and think how you would adapt.
