The sky is purple

Dear diary,

“Okay, first thing is first. This is a true story. I swear. It’s about how I found my best friend.”

Okay, let’s take it back a notch. Maybe… 13 years back.

It was May 3^rd. The day I was born. My parents were dying from worriedness, because my dad was born with Immunodeficiency, and they were scared I was too. My sister Tara died from the same disability a few months after she was born. It wasn’t until the day. The day I was born.

We finally reach the door, brown and dull like all the others, but I can already see people inside. "Well, here we are," the nurse smiles kindly and opens the door wider. Doctors and nurses surrounded his hospital bed, attaching IV's, heart monitors and oxygen tanks to him. It wasn’t very nice but what could we do, we weren’t too rich to be able to pay for a better hospital. Dad waited outside and then the magic happened. The Hospital room was tense. Filled with suspense and fear. Was I going to be a normal child? After the delivery, my dad came straight in and was a handed a report. I wasn’t a normal child. My dreams of living happily were shattered. Weren’t they? Well I might just be wrong there. I was facing Immunodeficiency AND Deuteranopia. For those of you that don’t know what those are. Immunodeficiency is having a weak immune system; which my parents were afraid I would have. And Deuteranopia is colour blindness. The doctors were completely confused as none of my parents were a carrier of colour blindness. I guess I was doomed right? My life was going to be so complicated right? Well, as someone once said, ‘life is simple, it’s not easy’. And that’s what lead me to an amazing life that I live today. Okay, so let’s see exactly how that happened!

After 2 years, life wasn’t easy. My parents were very strict on my cleanliness, I had to eat millions of veggies AND I had to go to bed really early. I felt really different from other kids, but I knew it was for the right thing and I had to take care of myself. And on top of that my colour blindness made me a unique child from the rest of my class. At school I was treated different from the rest of the kids and I had different food from my friends. Day by day, my life changed, and it became harder.

I was finally my 13^th birthday. It was like all my other birthdays. Alone with my parents. I begged my parents not to invite anyone because no one is nice to me at school because of my disability and colour blindness. Although, I was really lonely. I had a few girls which I was kind of friends with, but then I found out they were teasing me behind my back. So, I consider myself friend-less? I don’t know if that’s a word. If it isn’t then I will add friend-less in my dictionary. I already have a whole different world inside me - different from everyone else. A world where my sky is purple. Maybe I can make a whole new world for myself! And I can use all of my made-up words in it! Yes, that’s a great idea! What do you think diary? Here are some of the words I have made up. And all of these words relate to me in some way:

-      ‘Friend-less’

-      ‘Non-confident’

-      ‘Most-boring’

-      ‘Art-hater’

-      SupHiHeyHelloWhatsup (how to say hi in my world)

And now, I have to create a name for my world! Umm… what should it be? I know! Purple sky. Yes, I think I'm going to call my world ‘Purple sky’. So that’s what I basically did for my birthday. Actually, it was a really good birthday gift for me! Probably the best I’ve had so far. So, after that, I spent my days building my world. I even came up with a pet for myself in my world. It’s a hybrid between a bunny and puppy, with the body of a puppy and a face of a bunny! And it’s going to be the colour of purple. Or in your case, blue!

So, that’s when my life started getting more interesting. Of course, life always has negative turns. And my car, was about to have another one.

That’s when one day, I had yet again another art class. It wasn’t really my favourite class unlike my friends because of my colour blindness, but I always try to enjoy it as much as they can, although the art teacher doesn’t really make me because I always get my colours mixed up, and she doesn’t care about colour blindness and that I have a disability. We were making sceneries. I decided to make in mountain range with the beautiful purple sky. Purple? Yes, purple. Isn’t the sky Blue? Yes, it is. But I’m colour blind remember? So, I will see blue as purple. Oh yeah, I get it now! Okay, moving on. So, she asked each of us to tell her what colour the grass is. What colour is the grass? I said yellow. She got a bit annoyed but corrected me and everyone started laughing. What colour is the sky? I said purple. That’s when she got really angry. I got in strict trouble from the art teacher. She even took me to the principal! But, luckily the principal as very kind-hearted and blamed the teacher not me. It wasn’t my fault anyway! And, I was so happy when I heard she got fired because of her behaviour towards me.

But in all that, I learnt that no matter what other people see, it’s what you see that matters, and I learnt all that from Kelsey, my new best friend. She became my friend when I was being rushed to the principal’s office and when I was yelled at in art class. So, if your sky is purple, then the sky is purple! If your sky is blue, then the sky is blue! If your art teacher tells you off like mine, then don’t keep it to yourself! Tell an adult. Like how I eventually told the principal the truth. Art is meant to be a fun class, not for you to be yelled at and shamed in front of the whole class. Everyone has their own vision, and you stick with yours! So, I just want to honor Kelsey who supported me during this and if you don't have a Kelsey in your life, then don't worry, you can pass any turns in your life by yourself, whether they are positive turns, or negative turns! Bye for now Diary, I hope you learn something from this.

Yours sincerely, Rachel.