Annie Lennox – A Whiter Shade Of Pale

Laying there in the warm embrace of my mother, I was just minutes old, how I was I to know that I wasn’t just another newborn baby. I was something else. I wouldn’t go so far as to say I was special, but I was different. My mother was laying there on that cold delivery bed, scared, alone, and exhausted. when she heard the doctor say something that let her know her new baby boy was bigger surprise than she had already thought.

“Your son is 100% albino; he will be totally blind by the time he can walk. Make an appointment with me on Monday.”

Now, I ask you, why would the doctor say I would be totally blind by the time I could walk, when no known cases of an albino “naturally” going blind existed at this time, or even now for that matter? Well, it was probably due to the fact that no one really knows that much about Albinism. Now, I could sit here and give you a long medical definition to what Albinism is, but I’ll leave that up to the folks at Wikipedia.

For the record, I CAN see, but not very well. My vision is 20/480. Which basically means that what a person with “normal” vision can see from 480 yards away, I have to be 20 yards away from to see. This is a really bad description of my vision because there are a lot of factors that can improve or worsen my eyesight. Sunlight, wattage of light bulbs, even light bulb type, fluorescent for example, which I love by the way, incandescent lights hurt my eyes for some reason..

My sworn nemesis is the sun, we battle on a ‘daily’ basis. Unfortunately the sun’s powers greatly exceed that of my own. I am forced more often than not to don my protective armor. I have numerous defenses. For example, my Optical Reflection Lenses (sunglasses), my powerful Body Shield made of a thin layer of fat polymers. (UV 45 sun block) and of course I must have my Power Visor (baseball hat). If you haven’t guessed, I am a major geek, NOT TO BE CONFUSED WITH NERD!!!

The point is UV rays are extremely dangerous to albinos, I burn very easily, the light hurts my eyes, and my skin is highly susceptible to skin cancer. This is probably why I prefer the night life. I have a very high light perception. This means I see in the dark better than most, even with my vision loss. My grandmother used to call me “moon-eyed child”. Meaning I use the moon’s light like most use the sun’s light.

My mother made that appointment. And was told pretty much all the stuff I just told you. She was also told that I would have difficulty with reading, writing, and probably would have some learning disabilities. Why he told her this, I’m not sure because it really has nothing to do with my albinism, but I do have a mild case of dyslexia, and I have difficulty spelling. Other than that I’m pretty much like anyone else. Well, Sort of… maybe…. a little anyway.