Just for background information, I have red-green colorblindness (protanopia). This means the red cones in my eyes are absent, leaving only the cones that absorb blue and green light. So, I have difficulty distinguishing between red, green, and shades of blue and purple. Blue and purple look exactly the same to me, which led to the situation when my friends mocked me for thinking the Lakers jersey was blue. The best explanation I can give is that I can see “color”, but some colors are absent or blend together into one. Like how you may have a color palette of all the possible colors, but mine has empty slots as I cannot “see” some of them.
As for how my colorblindness hinders my everyday life, it doesn’t. At least not as much as most others would assume it would. I’ve found ways to work around it by using logic and color associations to correctly identify what I am looking at. What I mean by color association is I associate everything with a color. For example, if you asked me what color the walls are in a KFC, I’d know it’s red because red is the color of the brand. Or if you asked me the color of a basketball, I’d know whether it’s brown or orange depending on the brand and shade because I know basketballs are typically that color. Of course, this comes with much knowledge about everything around me, but I guess I learn as I go.
I also often distinguish two colors by their shades, one often being darker than the other. If a teacher were to give me an essay with yellow and green highlights, I would ask a friend which color is which, then remember which color is the darker and which is the lighter one, and then apply that knowledge to the rest of the highlights.
Living with protanopia has led to multiple funny encounters. I vividly remember one moment when I was at Kidzania (remember that?) and I did the activity to get my driver’s license. I had to do the colorblindness test with the colored dots, and I was trying my best. I got some correctly, but then I got stuck on one so I started guessing. The staff member, not knowing I was colorblind, grew tired of my guessing and instructed me to take it seriously in a very serious tone. Ma’am, I AM taking it seriously. I truly have no idea what these dots are meant to be showing me. I don’t even know what color they are. Green? Orange?
I also love how my colorblindness can be used as a real-world example in biology class. We were learning about recessive genes and colorblindness in my HL biology class and I mentioned I mentioned I was colorblind myself. Little did I know, the rest of the session would be turned to me as the teacher was so shocked she started flooding me with questions. After that, she would occasionally bring it up and ask me what color everything in the room is.
Do I wish I had normal vision? Yeah, why not? It would probably be cool to see all the possible colors. But does not being able to hinder my life significantly? Not really, as long as I’m able to get around it with the methods I’ve used my whole life. It also makes for a great essay topic (*cough* university Common App essay *cough*).
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