I still remember the evening as if it’s yesterday rather than the August of 30 years ago.
I sat in the auto-rickshaw that added its share of toxic smoke to the air that got cooler with the sea breeze. Traffic crawled along at a snail’s pace, making me feel more helpless. All that I wanted was to get home quickly and hide from the world.
It was a few days after my 16th birthday, and the doctor just told me that a genetic retinal condition would blind me in both eyes. My mother, seated next to me in the auto-rickshaw, couldn’t stop sobbing and the shock that my future would be a vast sea of dark space was too numbing for me to show any reaction.
As we found our way out of the clinic, someone held my hand and said how sorry he was that my future was doomed.
It was, quite fittingly, the darkest hour of my life.
The advantage of a traumatic experience while still being a child is that you don’t completely lose faith. You still see the brighter side, the cup half-full and the best way to turn trauma into a triumph.
In all the pain and shame, a friendly man who fought his own blindness and became a professor told me to change the way I looked at my traumatic moment. “When you shine light on the darkest side, you’d see it getting brighter. That way, there’s nothing called a permanent pain, or a permanent trauma. When it hasn’t broken your inner equilibrium, it definitely doesn’t have power to weaken you,” I remember him telling.
Changing my attitude to trauma not only helped me heal emotionally, but also gave me the courage to share my story with the world, in the hope that those getting blind mid-way through their life will find strength.
Life’s not about avoiding challenges; it’s how you respond that defines who you are. I’m sure you would’ve fought fear, failure, addiction or abuse to emerge triumphant. Only that you wouldn’t like to talk because you think that part of you is still painful or regrettable. Or you think your struggle is too small.
Let’s not forget that the world needs your story, the message of hope and optimism it gives to fellow human beings.
So you need to change your attitude to your struggle. The pain is in the past; it’s not going to affect you now. But the past holds ideas and inspiration for the future that needs to be harvested.
Shine light on the darker side and let the world be better.
Tell your story.
Each week, I exclusively send storytelling tips to people who sign up to my email list. There’s a free DIY course on making your story inspirational, which will help you face an interview, get supporters for your charity or investment for your business. Whatever it is, these skills let you understand yourself better to be successful. Click the below link to sign up: