[ WP ] A person who has travelled the world for their whole life loses enthusiasm after learning that they are going blind .

I've been through nearly every part of the globe. Ever since I was little I wanted to go out and experience the world. At first I just figured the lines in my eyes were from the lack of sleep. Catching buses at every other hour to get to the pyramids or canyons. 
 
 Then it happened. I could n't see from my left eye and the lines were appearing in my right. I dragged myself out of the hostel and to the nearest clinic. It's funny, the morning before I was me worried about how I was going tip get to the jungles of south America from Germany. 
 
 The doctors started running tests really in the morning. They did n't stop until well into the evening. They talked amongst themselves. In German of course. I did pick up the key phrase though. Parasite. I could n't believe this. I always made sure to drink bottled water in remote areas, wore clean clothes and ate meals I saw prepared. The fear grips my heart. One of the doctors spoke to me in broken English. He told me the parasite was something they could not do anything about. New breed or something like that. And it was nesting in my brain. Without surgery it was impossible and even with it it was a gamble. He patted my shoulder and left after that. 
 
 I could n't do anything about this. This thing in my brain was going to take the most important thing from me. Vision in my right eye was getting blurry again. What was the point. I could n't continue my journey like this. This was the end. I had four, maybe five days until the parasite severed my optic nerves. 
 
 I called my parents. They had n't seen me in years. I told them I was coming back to New York. This was it, the end of my travels. I mentally flipped through the places I'd been. All the faces I met. I'd never see any of those places again. I decided that with the little but if time left I was going to see the one place. You'd think it was bizarre but I had never been to the San Francisco bridge. Funny how I thought that since I'd always have a home to go back to I would be able to see it eventually when I saw everything else the world had to offer. 
 
 It really was something else. The early morning fog covered the entire bay. Just like I imagined it. Stunning. 
 
 `` I hope you do n't know how to swim.'' 
 
 And I jumped.
