My elementary and junior high school experiences were marked by implementing the advice of the ophthalmologists in terms of how to handle my eye condition, which was to treat him like any other boy with three small adjustments to compensate for his low vision: sitting in the front row in class to see the chalk board better, attending special reading classes to address slow reading and comprehension, and allowing me to be like all the other kids in the neighborhood.

The eighth-grade year was pivotal in my outward expression of dealing with the occasional bullying by other students when they would call me names or bully me by saying, “Who are you looking at?” My inward pent-up anger, bitterness, resentfulness, and vindictiveness was being developed during those years.

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