My earliest memory is a visual one. I see an image of my name written on a piece of paper in the dining area of the apartment my family and I lived in at the time. It was a small apartment, with only three bedrooms for six people. We had a small table where we ate our meals, and it was there that I sat when I first wrote my name. It’s a memory I think of often now that I know I’m going blind. Ironically, blindness is often associated with ignorance, typically of the willful nature like Oedipus from Oedipus Rex. Being diagnosed with Retinitis Pigmentosa–a chronic, degenerative eye disease–in 2019 made me irrationally afraid that I would become ignorant to the world around me. I didn’t want to be an Oedipus, suddenly giving up most of my independence and a career I wanted in medicine was mentally debilitating. I felt infantilized and incapable compared to the able-bodied person I once was. By 2020, I was declared legally blind, told I couldn't drive, and I felt helpless. I had no money, I had no significant work experience, and now I didn’t even have the entirety of my five senses. It was hard to go from believing I was completely able-bodied to suddenly being cut off from a life I once knew. I read a quote sometime after my diagnosis. It was from Ray Bradbury, and it stated, “I don’t believe in colleges or universities…I believe in Libraries.” Bradbury’s statement struck a chord in me. As someone who grew up in a low-income household with a parent that didn’t even graduate highschool, a four-year degree seemed like something beyond what I could do. It reminded me that my diagnosis wasn’t the first time I felt helpless. Despite poverty and disability, I always had access to a library. My lack of wealth and degrading vision didn’t negate the hours I spent learning in one. I realized I was becoming an Oedipus, choosing to be ignorant and metaphorically blinding myself to what I could do with what I had. It wasn’t about loss, but about adapting, and so I opted to embrace opportunity. I attended community college, and after completing my Associates of Arts degree, I transferred to the University of Central Florida (UCF) in the summer of 2021 and majored in English literature. In doing so, I was given the opportunity to present at the American-Russian Symposium, an event that English literature students at UCF were invited to participate in. I presented an essay that analyzed the local nuances of the Old South as represented in William Faulkner’s short stories and how they relate more universal themes. It became evident to me that I enjoyed doing research, so I pursued the opportunity to write an Honors Undergraduate Thesis. I conducted research on representations of disability in literature and completed my thesis in Spring 2023, which coincided with my Library of Congress Internship (LOCI) that I attended from January through May of 2023. I was adapting, and I no longer felt helpless. I made the Dean’s List every semester I was a full-time student at UCF, and I graduated with honors in my major in Spring 2023. Now I'm a student at Simmons University studying for the Masters of Library and Information Science (MLIS) degree, an expensive endeavor I'm attempting to do without loans. A scholarship like this would alleviate the weight of deciding between necessary medical appointments or continuing my education. I would no longer feel the need to cut corners on my future, and that would mean everything.