Narrative Essay

Passing Through Adversity

White bright light flashed in my eye. I wondered what it was. However, I soon concluded that it was because of my headache. I often had spells of awful headaches so I had been taken to the Red Cross hospital just few days previously. I was irritated because I had headaches almost everyday those days and I saw white light even when I closed my eyes. It was at the end of November, 2006 that the sky was clear and blue before cold dark winter. When I looked up in the sky, I noticed that there were strange black things which looked like small mosquitoes in my view. I had never seen such things before but I thought them a strange thing that was caused by my headaches. So, I didn’t go to hospital.

In January, 2007 I went to see oculist because I wanted to have contact lenses. In the waiting room, I saw a poster. It recommended people to take eye checks to prevent some serious eye diseases. I glimpsed it and a little bit worried about my eyes. So, I asked the doctor to check up my eyes. The doctor checked into my pupils and said “hmm.” He crossed his arms in front of his chest. I had a foreboding that something bad was going to happen. “You have detachment of the retina in your right eye.” He said quietly and slowly. I could hardly believe it. I thought he was an incompetent doctor. I had heard that people who had detachment of the retina were only old people or boxers. I was 20 years old and still young. I didn’t do any fighting. I didn’t hit my right eye anywhere at all. I didn’t do anything abnormal. “How could I get such a disease?” I asked myself whether I did something bad for my eye. I tried hard to recall my memories. He continued, “The retina of your right eye has two very big holes. It is very dangerous. You shouldn’t even walk because each movement of my body would cause more serious separation of retina.” I asked to the doctor why I had detachment of the retina. He said bitterly, “That is because you have an eye disease. It has a name but it is unknown yet. You should have emergency surgery. Otherwise, you will lose your eyesight. ” My mind went blank. I didn’t want to be blind. I was scared and I didn’t know what I should do. It was unusually sunny for winter on that day. After I went out from the hospital, I looked up in the sky. There was maybe beautiful clear blue sky, but I couldn’t see it because of tears and floaters.

I cried a lot but nobody could change my situation. Soon after I came back to the dormitory, I packed my stuff to go back to my hometown. It was Friday. My friends had a party at that night. Everyone looked happy. I felt very miserable. I wasn't able to attend to any classes during the winter program. Because I started from EAP level 1 last year, I hadn’t finished EAP level 3 yet. I wanted to move on to the Basic Education course with my classmates because we knew each other very well and we cooperated to overcome any of our difficulties such as assignments. We knew everyone’s efforts very well. I was thinking that I would be able to get over any difficulties if there were my classmates with me in the Basic Education course. However, there was no exception. It was definite I would have to take the EAP level 3 with new students in the spring semester. I was so shocked at this fact and felt very sad. I was sure that it would be really tough for me to start everything over again. “My friends might forget me.” I was moved to tears just by thinking about it. I felt abandoned. Next day, it was rainy outside as if it represented my feeling. There is a long tunnel from Akita prefecture to Yamagata prefecture. On the bus, I felt that there was no end of the tunnel.

For the first 3 days in the hospital, I was in a private room. Because there were too many patients, I had to wait for somebody’s release from the hospital. I was really alone especially at night. There was no hope at that time. I was down and I didn’t think I would be able to smile again. Whenever I thought about my college life and my health, I felt like someone was squeezing my heart. I felt that I was the most unhappy person in the world. I was alone. I couldn’t watch TV and use the computer of course. Listening to music and radio were the only thing that I could do in the long nights. My room was on 9th floor of the hospital. I could see a very beautiful night view from there. However, even the view depressed me. “Why am I the only one that has to endure such a situation?” I asked myself repeatedly, knowing there were no answers. “Life is unfair!” I didn’t want to accept the reality. I cried and cried, lamenting over my misfortunes.

After those 3 days, I moved to a big room. There were 5 people in addition to me in the room. All of them were much older than I and I met two 90 years old women there. 3 of the patients in the room were hospitalized because of old-age cataracts. Those old women often talked about life and death. Their topics were always like this. It was completely different from the topic that I usually talked with my friends on campus. Sometimes they talked about how to make delicious pickles and about their family, but their talking went into more profound thing: life and death. They told me about their past. They had experienced war, want of food, child rearing, and husbands’ deaths. Most of their stories were the things that I have never experienced. 90 years sounds very long for me. I have lived only 20 years. One old woman said, “Today is a good day to die.” When I heard this for the first time, I thought she was a negative person. However, actually she meant that she wouldn’t regret her life if she died at that time. I thought how her wonderful way of thinking she was. Their story moved me a lot.

Two other women were hospitalized because of the detachment of retina as well as me. One of them was diabetic and she was almost blind. She already took the surgery for both her eyes. She said that even though she took the surgery, she wouldn’t be able to recognize things. I didn’t know what I should say to her. Then, she smiled and said, “But I’m happy because I can see light at least.” I was so surprised because I have never thought about my bad luck in such a way. She couldn’t walk and even eat meals by herself. However, I never heard her whine about it. Rather, she encouraged me to be brave about the surgery. The other woman is my good friend now. We are still keeping in touch with each other. Her detachment of retina was worse than mine. She was around 70, but she said she was still working at a department store. She was always cheerful and gave energy to me. I felt warm in my heart. Thanks to them, my pessimistic thoughts went away.

One day, my parents brought a letter. The cute envelope made my heart leap up. I turned it over and found one of my classmates’ names on it. My heart filled with joy. She wrote letters to me every third day. She wrote them in a big letters because I couldn’t see clearly if she used small letters. She sometimes recorded her voice; other classmates’ voices, and teachers’ voices on cassette tapes. She put one or two MDs into every letter so that I could listen to a lot of music thanks to her. One day, she recommended a song in a letter. That title was “You are not alone.” I listened to the music again and again.

On January 24, I had an eye surgery in the Yamagata University hospital. Before I took it, fear constricted my chest. However, I remembered people who supported me and encouraged myself.

“I can see.” I said to my doctor. He checked my right eye precisely and said “You can leave the hospital soon.” The surgery was a success. The doctor said “There are no ways to cure the diseases completely at this point. So, although you took the surgery and have a silicon chip in my right eye, you still have to go to a hospital to check your both eyes at least once a month. If you promise it, you can go back to your university.” In the morning of the day that I left the hospital, it was rainy but soon it stopped. I looked up in the blue sky and smiled.

I can't change the fact that I have diseases. Yet, I can change my mind if I really want to. Passing through this adversity, I could be stronger than before.