As I got ready for the day in the darkness of 5 am, I opened my jewelry box to retrieve my wedding rings which I never wear at home. Choosing some simple stud earrings, I considered a ring for my right hand. I wanted to be as unencumbered as possible during the long day ahead. I was going to Wills Eye Hospital in downtown Philadelphia for my annual appointment with my neuro-ophthalmologist. That visit would take three or four hours, then I would walk across the street to Jefferson Hospital for another hour or so of testing for a research study I am participating in.
Picturing myself sitting in front of one high-tech machine after another, I decided to wear a ring I purchased in Sedona, Arizona at an outside arts and crafts show on a sunny May morning, surrounded red rock formations. A simple turquoise band, it would not be a distraction. But that was only part of the reason I picked this particular digit decoration. It was not for luck, but to remind myself that I am not a patient or a test subject. I am a person who travels and explores and does her damnedest not to let her visual impairment stop her from doing the things she loves.
The next time you are facing a big day, an important event that is looming large in front of you, take something with you that helps you to not lose track of you. Of course it is quite possible that whatever you come up against will change you. But to be altered does not mean to be erased. Who you are will always ring true.
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