Blindness Cannot Blind Dream
By Park Si-soo
Staff Reporter
Kim Kyung-min still vividly remembers how the sky looked like one day in late July 2000.
``It was clean and bright enough to defy description; the shining color of yellow on my room's paper-pasted floor and all the other stuff on my desk,'' she said.
Days later, however, everything before her eyes suddenly turned black. ``It was exactly August 1. When I woke up in the morning, everything I saw was gray. I saw dimly and colorlessly,'' Kim said. She was in the sixth grade at that time.
The 21-year-old is now a junior at Sookmyung Women's University in Seoul, double majoring in pedagogy and English, and almost totally blind.
Despite the handicap, she has shown outstanding academic performances. She received perfect scores in all subjects last semester to win a full scholarship for this semester. It is the first time that a seeing-impaired student has gotten straight ``A-pluses'' at the school.
``The scholarship was very helpful in lightening the (financial) burden on my parents, who manage to make ends meet these days by selling fried chicken,'' she said.
She was born in 1988 with a serious disease affecting her vision. She had little difficulty seeing until the sudden blindness thanks to a total of 26 operations she underwent in the first eight years of her life and her parents' devoted attendance.
She graduated from an ordinary kindergarten. ``Even though I advanced to a primary school for the blind, my condition was good enough to assist classmates whose eyesight was completely impaired,'' she said.
However, the unexpected loss of sight turned the once outgoing, optimistic and energetic teenager into a grumbling, pessimistic person stuck in endless defeatism.
``I behaved like a person harboring a grudge against society during my secondary school years,'' she said, blinking half-open eyes. ``Also, I was trapped in the belief that all my efforts toward any goal would be fruitless in the end.''
But she found herself recovering her inborn nature upon attending university.
She attributed her joyful school life and exceptional academic performances to her family, friends, professors, class assistants and guide dog ``Midami,'' provided by Samsung.
``Without them, it would surely have been impossible for me to make such outstanding performances,'' she said. ``Frankly, I've studied diligently. Except for time I spend commuting to school and sleeping, I review lessons by listening to them several times and do my homework. But I really don't want to be taken for a bookworm.''
``If I could read, I wouldn't study that much. But the books I can `read' now are the outcome of my class assistants' time and energy. They take notes on my behalf and transform the contents into audio files or special books for the blind. Given their dedication, it would be unimaginable for me to abandon the content after reading or listening to it only once or twice,'' Kim said.
Her dream is teaching English to regular students, and not the disabled. ``It's to break a sort of stereotype or socially deep-rooted discrimination against people like me. It won't be easy, but I will make it.'' Her voice slightly trembled but was full of confidence. ``If possible, I would like to see the crystal blue sky I saw nine years ago, and my family above all,'' she said as cherry blossom leaves flying from nearby trees on the campus were mirrored in her moist eyes.