Naomi-

All around me, there is a beautiful whole wide world.

That I will never see.

It's not like I was always like this, blind, I mean. It wasn't until I was about eight years old that I- well, we- realized that I was losing my sight. It just kind of happened. Slowly and gradually, until one day, I woke up and opened my eyes. But saw nothing. Just an empty blank void of nothingness that seemed to devour me.

I was horrified.

It took me quite a while to adjust to my new life. Having to explain to people that I couldn't see where they were pointing, that I couldn't return high fives, or that I couldn't even do basic things like trust myself to walk down a set of stairs I had never walked down before. If it weren't for my developed senses, I probably wouldn't be here today.

It was especially hard on my oldest brother, however. He got into fights, did drugs, the whole what-it-takes-to-be-a-bad-influence-and-hooligan thing.

It took an arrest warrant and a month in a juvenile detention center for him to realize what he was doing was definitely not okay.

But I understood why he was doing those things. In a way, I was thankful. He distracted my mother with those things and kept my mind off the scary thoughts that might have developed otherwise.

Slowly, everyone came to terms that this is how things had to be. That it would take extra long for me 'watch' a show, or that I could no longer read music and dance like I used to.

Sometimes it's really hard for me.

I miss my mother's crow lines whenever she smiles, and the poppies that sprouted just along the fence of our house. I miss my brother's sarcastic eyeroll and being able to pick out my own outfits without being a fashion nightmare.

I even miss the things that I never got the opportunity to see. My foster's sisters bright smile, how my brother and I have grown, the peppery streaks that slowly show through my mother's hair as time goes on.

I can't see any of that, nor will I ever.

But at least with my family, I can try my hardest to get through it.

If not for me, for them.