“The one question that really stuck with me was a boy in my third grade who asked if I was the devil.”

I was born with two blue eyes into a family of people with green or blue eyes. About 3 months after I was born, my mother says she looked down at me and screamed for my dad. My eyes were now green and brown. This puzzled them because while my green eye looked just like my dad’s, brown eyes shouldn’t have been in my gene pool.
Fast forward to growing up, I was always really aware that my eyes were different. I always got people asking me “Do you see differently in each eye? Are you blind in one eye? Are those contacts? Do you see with different tints? How is that even possible?” The one question that really stuck with me was a boy in my third grade who asked if I was the devil. He spread that story around school using my “unnatural” eyes as proof of his story. I had never wanted to be normal until that moment.
By middle school, I was comfortable and proud of being different despite what other people would say. With every mean comment or stare came a person who said my eyes were beautiful. It was during this time that I watched “X-men First Class” which taught me the term heterochromia and gave me a connection that made the x-men some of my favorite comics. They were mutants and so was I.
I decided to research heterochromia iridium and discovered that there were three types, all of which I had. Complete, central, and sectoral. I also found online communities of people like me who could share stories and offer advice.
I only ever met two other people with heterochromia. One worked at the local Chick fil a and would usually give me a free ice cream. The other I met about 2 years ago, my freshman year of high school. She was a lacrosse player for UF and I was attending a lacrosse clinic there. She and I became close and she helped me improve my skills enough to become a starter for my high school team.
Overall, having heterochromia has shaped much of my life. It is a source of jokes, confusion for biology teachers, intrigue, and uniqueness. I may not know why my eyes are like this, but I am grateful for it.

“it is something about the eyes that I find a different way to see the history of people.”

A life through two different eyes. I always look people in the eyes when I am speaking to them, it is something about the eyes that I find a different way to see the history of people. But then when I look into a person with a heterochromia I get this feeling that I am looking into two people at the same time, what has the eyes seen? I wonder if it is the same with other people when they look into my own eyes.

“doctors say that a beauty mark on my right eye is the reason that it changed colors.”

 

“Did you know you have two different-colored eyes?”

That is the most common reaction I get when someone notices my eyes. It’s pretty silly when you think of it, of course I know!

They have been different colors since as long as I can remember and I love them. It’s weird, but they are now part of my identity and I can’t imagine having matching eyes.

I like showing that unsymmetrically is beautiful in a world that views symmetry as a way to measure beauty. With my face covered in beauty marks and the heterochromia, I am far from symmetrical but still feel beautiful.

Beauty marks are often made fun of as well, especially when on your face and noticeable. People made fun of my “moles” quite a bit growing up…but my doctors say that a beauty mark on my right eye is the reason that it changed colors. Makes it easy to love the strange pigmented dots that have appeared over the years.

I think uniqueness is so beautiful and should be celebrated :)! Love yourself for who you are!

“the fact that I had these eyes – really made me believe that they were a mark of something good and great, that I was someone, and that I would get out of the nightmare….and I did”

When the belt rained down blow upon blow and my mother screamed at me “Do you think you’re special? Do you think you’re better than us?” I silently screamed “Yes!” I had to be special, I had these eyes – surely they were the mark of someone special, that I wasn’t actually a part of this family, that I belonged to another. No one else in my family or friends had my eyes – one full green, one full brown. When my brother sexually abused me and told me that I was “nothing special” I silently cried “I am special”, “you’re not even one of us.” he told me “We found you in an orphanage.If you tell anyone – they’ll take you back there”. I wished they would take me back there.

Now as every year passes, the older I get, the further I get away from the nightmare I endured as a child, and when I step into a beautiful day, I feel myself flourishing, because despite what happened to me, the fact that I had these eyes – really made me believe that they were a mark of something good and great, that I was someone, and that I would get out of the nightmare….and I did.

Now when someone says “your eyes are amazing” I reply “Yes – they are a bit special” because they are. When I catch sight of them in my mirror – I only see the beauty and potential.

Heterochromiaproject_burningman

“I don’t really get it why people even care about things like that, the color of your eyes, skin or hair shouldn’t matter because what really matters is your heart and personality”

When I was little kids used to bully me every day just because I was different, like pulling my hair, pushing me and calling me, for example, “alien”. I don’t really get it why people even care about things like that, the color of your eyes, skin or hair shouldn’t matter because what really matters is your heart and personality. I remember I was really upset everytime I had to go to the kindergarten and later to school because I’ve always had a feeling that I don’t belong here, that there is something wrong with me, that’s how kids treated me after all. I really hated my eyes because people couldn’t accept them and I didn’t have any friends for a long time because of some of them telling everyone that I must be weird or something. One day I met a boy who told me that he really liked my eyes, I remember how surprised I was, I even thought it’s some kind of a joke again. He became my best friend for a long time and he showed me a new point of view on the world. The older I was the fewer people were trying to bully me for being different, now they tell me that they are jealous and would do everything to have eyes like that too. I still don’t fully accept them but I’m learning how to love myself, I think this is one of the most important things in life.

 

 

I went to my room crying and told my sister I didn’t want to be “normal”

Thanks for sharing your beautiful story David 🙂

“When I was 5 I asked my mom why I had two different colored eyes and she told me not to worry that they’d change back to normal some day. I went to my room crying and told my sister I didn’t want to be “normal.”