Every morning I wake up to a blur of colour. Mostly whites and browns as those are the most common colours that exist in my room. As the sun comes up things become brighter, but far from in focus. After checking to make sure I still have all my extremities, standard procedure coinciding with enduring any nightmares of the previous night, then I put my glasses on.
The blur becomes exponentially sharper and the chaos I wake up to makes much more sense. Small or far away details are still obscured but all I have to do is walk over to them to examine them more closely.
I get out of bed, and go about my morning routine, make breakfast, head off to work, come home later, make supper, and then hang out with friends or relatives in the evenings.
“What? This seems a lot like my life!” you might say, and you’d be right.
Yes, my friend, there’s nothing particularly spectacular about being legally blind.
Except for this.
If I have my glasses off and look at a single light I will see a perfect circle, no matter what shape the light was originally. The circle will be coloured in the same colour as the light was originally, however in the center will appear a black dot which spiderwebs out toward the edge of the circle. If the light is bigger, sometimes there are other black dots within the web.
Even this description is not quite right. It’s hard to describe something only I can see.
The idea for the cover photo is based on the closest rendering I could find on the internet as to what a Christmas tree looks through my eyes without the help of my glasses. This is the best time of year for this phenomenon that only nearsighted people like myself can enjoy properly. When I visit my parents during the Christmas season, they have these alternating lights that brighten and die out in a sort of pattern. This makes the whole phenomenon of what I see without glasses even more interesting. I should add that I’m completely sober during these times and therefore there are no negative side effects.That part is really quite fantastic.There are other parts about being legally blind that aren’t overly fantastic, but you the reader and I the author will explore those later on.