Hello. Thank you for all being here today. My name is Min Hee Shin and I want you to
meet Jamie. Jamie is your next-door, typical grade-schooler with a personality so
bright you might just never realize that there’s more to her than meets the eye.
Jamie was born with retinopathy of prematurity, also known as ROP, which is a
disease that will make her live with severe vision loss for the rest of her life. The
doctors were unsure she would be able to live a normal life, let alone walk properly.
Everyone was devastated at the fact that this little child would never live a normal
life. However, she proved everyone wrong by showing the world that nothing could
hold her back.
It may now concern you who Jamie is. She’s my younger sister. I was nine years
old when she was born along with her twin sister Stephanie. Although they were born
two months earlier than expected, I was eager to see my newly-born sisters. Except
my dad didn’t take me to see them. At least not right away. Something was wrong.
They were sick, and too fragile to even be in a normal hospital room, so they had to
be immediately put into an incubator. Several weeks later, when they were finally
big and healthy enough to go home, we suddenly found out that Jamie had ROP.
This began a lifelong challenge for our family, and as the oldest sister, I felt the
obligation to always care for her; to teach her what I could. Instead, to everyone’s
surprise, I turned out to be the one that’s learning from her.
It’d be deemed truly a miracle if a young child, thought to be incapable of walking
anywhere, skillfully rides her bike around the neighborhood. Still, Jamie still certainly
was a bit slower than her peers. Although she had glasses specially made, they
weren’t enough to see even three feet in front of her. Her impaired eyesight also
tired her out more easily because she wouldn’t be able to, she would have to
concentrate several times harder than others.
Still, she didn’t use her disability as an excuse to give up on life. Her curiosity and
eagerness to stand up to the world helped her thrive as a learner. For example,
while others learned the Korean alphabet in preschool, Jamie learned it in the
second grade. Every day she stuck to her whiteboard and wrote the Korean alphabet
numerous, even hundreds of times. She always carried her magnifying glass around
just to see what others easily could. Only through such endeavors was she able
to do all of her schoolwork. She recently even passed the level five certificate for
the Korean History examination at the age of twelve, just by studying on her own.
These efforts helped to create a sense of judgment, and therefore shaped her into
an independent person.
Frankly speaking, Jamie was complete the opposite of me. I frequently procrastinated
because I was too sleepy or tired for the time being, while she was improving by
the minute, regardless of her disability. I was in awe of my sister’s diligence, and
at the same time ashamed of my laziness.
We all live, but are we ever our best selves? We make excuses to rationalize
something we lack. We rely on others when we are indecisive and blame them when
things turn out wrong. Jamie avoids all these vices. She showed the world how
capable an individual she was, even when most thought she would achieve so little.
Every day she does whatever it takes to become the best version of herself. So,
I wanted to share my story; my friend to the world, hoping that in some way,
Jamie’s story would also encourage you to do the same. Thank you.