Macular Degeneration: Maintaining a Positive Perception

by Nancy Shugart

Perception is the way you look at things. It's the meaning you give to something.

I once heard a woman in a wheelchair say that when most people look at her wheelchair they see it as something that confines her, something that holds her down.

She said, "Oh no, my wheelchair does not confine me. It takes me places I otherwise could never go."

If given an opportunity, where could the challenge of Macular Degeneration and vision loss take you?

I lost my eyesight when I was eight years old. Do you think I saw that as being a good thing? Absolutely not. I saw it as being a terrible thing.

As I grew into my teenage years, I was becoming more and more angry. I was angry for being different, angry for having to work so much harder than everyone else.

My anger exploded when the Department of Public Safety told me that I could not get my driver's license just because I couldn't see!

But all of my classmates in high school were getting their drivers license. It's not fair that I can't drive, I kept telling myself.

I came very close to dropping out of high school and to just giving up on life. So why didn't I? I'll tell you.

Out of absolute sheer desperation, I began to look around and I saw something that made no sense to me.

First, I saw people who, in my opinion, had everything a person could possibly need to succeed and yet many were not.

Then I began to notice people who, in my opinion, had far less than what I had but yet they were doing incredible things with their lives.

I saw people who could not see and yet they were attorneys, college professors, investment specialists, authors, scientists, inventors, along with others who were enjoying a whole host of other careers that I never dreamed would have been possible for a person who is blind or visually impaired.

In every case, these successful career people did not look at their vision loss as a terrible thing. They maintained a positive perception.

As you move forward with a confident perception, keep in mind the wisdom of Dr. Wayne Dyer who said, "When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change."