Yes, I am colorblind. Ninety percent of you will ask if I can only see in black and white. The answer is no. My life is not a John Wayne movie, Pilgrim. Not every color blind person can only see in black and white. There are different levels of color blindness. For me, I'm just generally colorblind. Mine is mainly blues and purples that I get mixed up a lot. If you ever run into a colorblind person, here are some things you need to know.

First, I don't need help picking out colors. I can dress pretty well, thank you very much. However, if I walk out of the house with something that looks God awful, please tell me. Sometimes, I make mistakes because I could be in a hurry. Generally, a colorblind person wears the same shirt with the same pants because we know that those go together. It's not because I know the colors but it's because I know that particular shirt just so happens to go with those pants. You may be wondering why I wear khakis and blue jeans with everything a lot of the time. The answer is simple: khakis and blue jeans are my default. They go with everything.

Now that we have the dressing out of the way, let's talk about pet peeves for a moment. First, the question, "What color is that?" gets old after a while. It's your curiosity getting the better of you but a lot of the time the colorblindness isn't as bad as it seems. The only time that color should come up is if I ask you, "What color is this?" because I can't tell the difference between that color and the one right next to it. The next pet peeve that I have with colorblindness is how people think that I'm a unicorn or something for not being able to see a certain color. This one doesn't happen a lot but some people will think that colorblind people are something out of the twilight zone or something. Again, it doesn't happen a whole lot but it takes people by surprise since it's a bit rare to have it.

Colorblindness is not something to be afraid or confused about, rather it is something that is just simply what someone is. It's that special thing about someone that you can make fun of them for it sometimes. It's something that makes the person more of an individual and more unique. I don't think of my colorblindness as something that holds me back, rather, as something that helps me to understand life and gives me and interesting perspective on life. Being colorblind isn't a bad thing but it is something to be proud of. Sometimes I am a bit annoyed at people who ask me about colors, but I know that they are just curious. It's not bad to ask about it but just know that everyone has their limits with questions and comments about it. All in all, just think about how the person feels about being asked all these questions and make sure that it's okay for you to ask about it.