do You Really Know?

What do you see when you look at me?
A reserved and quiet person,
Who seemingly has no friends.
What do you think when you listen to me?
She has no prospects or future ahead,
Or she’s going to remain alone throughout this lonely existence.
What do you know when you think of me?
She’s blind and lonely and pity will suffice
My incredible desire to feel sorry for her.
And in truth, none of these assumptions are correct.
You look at me and see as stereotype!
But if you looked deeper
And took the time,
You would know that I’m more than that.
I revere at the thought of a stereotype.
I stand back and criticize those caught up in it.
I hate to think of myself than any more or any less
Than a simple human being.
So why then do you see what I don’t?
I’m a woman!
I have feelings and desires and needs!
I have ambition, determination hopes and dreams,
Just like anyone else.
So why then,
Insist on seeing less than that?
I am a friend, a sister, a daughter,
And one day maybe a wife and a mother,
I am what all women are or are able to be,
And despite a disability placed upon me,
I can achieve all I am supposed too.
If fate took a line and drew it for me,
Then I am able to fulfil it!
If destiny is meant for me,
Then I will attain it!
Frustration is a daily part of my life.
Constantly proving I am more than I am seen to be,
And yet still I fight after almost 24
To ensure I am seen in the same light as my piers.
School friends still look down upon me,
I’m still known for my blindness
Almost infamous for it.
If blind people are anything, it’s a celebrity in their own right,
Put here to be watched and awed at
When in actual fact,
All we want is to be recognized for our talents and personality,
And still you see nothing but a stereotype.
I have a mind, I have a body and
I have a soul,
And you constantly abuse my trust and break my heart,
In order to make yourselves feel better.
Belittling is the highest gain of power
And by doing what you do to me ensures that power.
Because I have a weakness,
I am a target
For you!
Do you all feel so insecure
That by making me feel worthless and disabled
Enables your ability to feel better about yourself.
If I could regain that power,
Then I would,
But somehow my ability to win back my own power is diminishing every day.
I want nothing more than to be with friends,
Hanging out, clubbing, partying, shopping,
Doing all I did when I felt safe and in my own zone,
When life was better and I was stronger,
In a world where nothing mattered but school and what to wear to what party,
And although now,
It seems my worries exist only in my head.
I miss my life,
I’m existing and part of it is because here
I am seen as nothing but a stereotype.
Why do you think I keep fighting so hard?
Because I know I had it good where I once was!
I was accepted
I was loved!
And now I feel alone and afraid
That I will die here and never be happy again.
Seen as you all see me,
In that stereotype of someone incapable
Unattainable to her goals,
And purely disabled from your world.
Here I live as it is
In my world and you have yours
Whereas where I once was,
I lived in a combined and happy world,
Where sightless meant nothing but a difference,
Not a disability.
Equated to a fact where hair colour differs or eye colour changes,
Sightlessness means nothing more.
And I am trapped here where blindness means I am forever enclosed
In your stereotype!