MARINATA

Her name , I just love it. It’s so catchy and very easy to say. It’s like vanilla ice cream with a sprinkle of caramel. Well, I love ice cream in case you need a girlfriend. Marinata, she’s like one of those lazy girls with oversized sweaters and have sneakers and drink naked smoothies and lights up a room with their smile. They hardly miss a backpack with a high puff ponytail.

We all have had stigmas at some point in life. I have had one too. At the age of 6, she was dicovered to have an eye problem. Her eyes would turn from brown to red to green. I’m just trying to imagine how bad that seemed. Doctors assured her that the eyes would clear the moment she hits 13. We all know those doctor talks, trying to make one feel better.

I’m not trying to imlpy anything. 7yrs would be a lifetime wait i’d think. The strength to keep up with kids calling her ‘macho bhangi’. Honestly, it would take me the 12 disciples plus the ten commandments to keep being strong.

For her, stigmatization was never anticipated, no one wanted to associate with her. In her teen-age phase, she would not at any point be part of a group selfie. You seen an alien before? right,I thought so too, but you do have an idea. I’m just trying to think like her peers then and probably give a good reason why I wouldn’t want to be in the same photo with her.

I do not know what vernal conjuctivis or keratoconus is but they do not sound sweet at all. I literally cried when Marinata mentioned that she had several instances where she had to be injected inside her eyes. Her cornea was super thin that she was close to being blind.

I genuinely felt her pain but that wasn’t the reason I cried. I wear glasses too. Myopia isn’t anything close to keratoconus right? I mean, that already sounds like death. I’m here thinking that i’m blind but ‘wueh’ Marinata is blind blind.

I like her. I like her bravery. She continued with her life even when she wanted to die. She realized that her mental health was declining and did something to bring her peace. She reached out to someone. You see, one little step is all she needed to remind herself that this is not permanent. I did not have to understand to be there for her but I listened.

When someone breaks a bone, we reach out to show them care, we don’t make them feel ashamed of what happened to them. So why don’t we do the same to the ones who struggle mentally regardless of whom they are.

It’s amazing how we both have brown eyes and people with brown eyes are the most fun and happy. You know how when you mix a bunch of different colors together and it turns brown? Like paint or pencil. I think the darkness of brown eyes is just a mixture of all that someone has to offer to the world and all that someone has received from the world. Like all the stories, the laughs and the potential in someone ….It all shows through the brown eyes.
All the moments that make someone love life or question life …..all of that shows through those deep brown eyes. Those eyes are anything but ordinary.

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