Seeing the World Differently

Like many other children, I wanted to be a police officer when I grew up. I had the whole costume with all the accessories. I pretended everyone was a criminal. I arrested my whole family on multiple occasions. A firefighter was my second choice. Each time my mom lit a candle I yelled, “FIRE!”, and poured water on it to put it out. I still remember her rolling her eyes. Being a doctor was on my list too. I would make my sister lie down so I could take her temperature, and check her heart and of course, she always needed a shot.  

My dream career changed daily, or after I watched a movie. If being a policeman or fireman didn’t work out, Superman was a good backup plan.

What I never imagined was that my childhood dreams would be crushed by a common medical issue. I’m colorblind. My career choices along with many others are just not possible for someone like me.

Earlier this year while having dinner with my family (Indian takeout, my favorite), I saw a new sauce that I had never tasted. “Hey Dad, what is that sauce? It kind of looks like chocolate milk.” My dad looked at me confused. “Chocolate milk? Tyler, that sauce is green.”  I was the only one that saw it differently. My family and I spent the rest of the evening scouring the internet, taking online colorblind tests. I scored an 8%. I started to think, have I always had this? Will my kids be colorblind too? So many questions ran through my head.

I came to learn people are born colorblind. When I think back to my early childhood; when I got dressed for school, my mom would make me change nearly every day because she said my outfit didn’t match. At one point she thought I was just going through a mismatched rebellious phase. For an elementary school assignment, I remember coloring the leaves on a tree red instead of green. My excuse was that it was autumn and all the leaves were different colors. More recently, when I do volunteer work at Common Heart, I taught myself to memorize the order of what goes in their colored bins, because too often I was mixing up the colors and putting things in the wrong place.

I have lived all my life, up until recently, not knowing that I was colorblind. So how have I gotten by? Simply by not being afraid to ask “stupid questions.” I have been proven wrong more times than I can count. Thankfully though I have learned that being wrong teaches you something new. I have to pick myself back up and keep moving forward because changing and growing is what make you successful. You learn from your failures. I’ve learned to look at things from a different point of view.

I enjoy asking questions. Being inquisitive expands my knowledge. It helps my memorization skills and retention of lessons. I’ve also learned not to take my failures personally. Shifting my perspective from negative thoughts, embracing a more positive outlook, and recognizing that every failure is one step closer to success is how my adaptation to my colorblindness has helped me.

Even though my childhood dream careers weren’t possible for me, I am still thankful for what my color blindness has taught me. I’m different, but I’m unique. I get to see the world differently than everyone else. Superman’s weakness is kryptonite. I originally thought mine was colors but I have learned through this process that it has been my strength. So many things that being color blind has taught me will pave my way to success through my college years.