I’Ll Never Take Anything For Granted Again

There’s nothing more disturbing than the sound of a scream so loud you think a person’s arms were cut off or he had just seen his best friend murdered.

That scream echoed in my ears. I kept re-living that moment. It’s the kind of sound that never leaves. The thing was, it was my voice, and my scream.

Silly little thing it was: a paintball. At lunch break I had no need for the safety gear I had been wearing earlier. My eye must have been open when it hit me, bouncing off, not even exploding.

My sight went immediately dark, with images coming from one eye only. After I was done screaming, I fell over and almost fainted.

In the emergency room, they left me alone in a dark room with no lights on. I hyperventilated so badly that I curled up in fetal position.

It was the worst pain I had ever experienced in my life, and probably the worse I’ll ever experience.

After I began to breathe more normally again, I sat there, alternating between throwing up and almost passing out while holding my eye.

And then it hit me.

I didn’t know what was going to happen to my eye. But one thing I did know was that I was not going to die. Why would I die? But that’s what I feared.

In that cold and dark room, I suddenly was afraid to die. Suddenly I didn’t feel immortal. How could this be? I’m a teenager. Aren’t we supposed to be immortal?

It’s strange what it takes for us to realize how fragile life really is. But it was in that moment that I understood how short life is.

I thought about her and how I should tell her how I really feel. You know, her - that special someone.

I often think of that phrase “carpe diem” - seize the day. There are so many opportunities that we wimp out of because we don’t realize that now is the time. Now will never come again.

It was in that moment that I feared my dreams and aspirations would be hindered forever.

I have a whole new perspective for things that I once took for granted: family, friends, God and, of course, my sight.

Technology is a wonderful thing, though. My vision improves by the day. In one eye I see the world as I always have. In the other I see through space-age plastic - a whole new perspective.