Omari

Cause of blindness - Trauma

Omari is 21 years old. In 2014 he and his friends were playing with a BB gun and Omari was shot in the eye. The shot ruptured his eye and detached his retina.

Little did Omari know, this incident would transform him. It became a wakeup call to change his path and find his true calling.

Despite what most would expect, Omari forgave his friends.

“I did that a long time ago,” Omari assured us.

That forgiveness was key to Omari’s transformation.

“Before it happened I thought so highly of myself. I was conceited, and I was becoming someone I wasn’t.”

Omari was glad it happened because before that he wasn’t his true self.

“It needed to happen. Not exactly what happened, but I needed to be challenged.  I got something worse than that, but I really did need it.”

“I wouldn’t say it was more than a coincidence, but it didn’t happen for nothing.”

Omari did not forgive his friends immediately. He reflected over his actions, friendships and decisions, and found that most of the blame was his own.

“We were just regular kids. We played basketball, we played sports. But when it happened, it was through my doing. I knew there was a ballistic inside.”

“That day we started to point the gun at each other. We didn’t play around like that really, we never shot at each other. Starting to do that, that was the mistake we all made. By then it was already out of control.”

Omari had the wisdom to see that the accident was not personal. It was a product of his and his friend’s behavior.

Omari remembers vividly the sequence leading up to the incident. Omari tackled his friend and then ran to the basketball court to take a shot. His friend was chasing after him with the BB gun, and after Omari shot the ball he saw his friend with the gun.

“It happened so fast. I kept telling myself to move. I kept telling myself. But my body wouldn’t.”

And with a bang his friend pulled the trigger.

“It was the worst pain I ever felt. It was physical pain, but it wasn’t just physical, it was psychological too.”

Omari felt that his body was there but his mind was elsewhere. He was frantically thinking about everything: what he would not be able to do, and how he would live.

“It’s not something I’d ever expect to happen to me, but it happened.”

The pain of loss, the shock of his eye obliterated and the sudden and complete blindness was overwhelming beyond comprehension.

His friends apologized and in time Omari forgave them. He never fostered resentment, but Omari and his friends grew apart. Though he still considers them friends, Omari knew things would never be the same between them.

This was especially true with his friend that shot the gun.

“He may care, he may not, but right now that doesn’t matter to me. I have to do what I have to do, and I can’t judge him.”

“So I had to forgive him, because I can’t let anything stop me. I don’t want those emotions affecting me negatively. There’s no time for me to waste, to stop and think about it and mope. I’m done with that.”

Omari tried to set things right in his mind-- to make it make sense so that things could be okay.

“I tried to create reasons for why it happened, just to get me through it. But eventually I realized there’s really no reason it happened.”

Omari knew it was an accident.  “Either it was going to make me stronger, or make me bitter. And I didn’t want it to change me that way, so I didn’t let it.”

“In the end it’s all about what happened, and who had to take it in. By it happening, by me having to deal with it, I created who I was.”

Omari was fascinated with blindness before his vision loss. He loved the story of Zatoichi, a blind samurai and skilled Japanese warrior who was a blade master and an excellent masseur.

This fascination led Omari to practice kung fu. One of his favorite martial artists is Bruce Lee. To Omari he is a role model and a hero. 

Omari was also intrigued by biblical references to blindness. Omari found hope in the stories of Jesus healing the sick and blind.

In one of Omari’s favorite passages, Jesus rubbed clay over the eyes of a man blind from birth. When the clay came off, the man was healed, and saw for the first time ever. This gave Omari hope for his own recovery. Faith saved Omari from despair.

After the treatment, Omari had to rest his head and his eye to let the retina reattach. Due to his age and swift action, Omari regained some vision. Unfortunately, Omari’s retina only partially reattached, and there was an abundance of scar tissue leftover from the damage. To heal, Omari could not look up without risking further detachment.

Life was tough, but Omari kept a healthy balance of optimism and realistic expectations.

“There’s some things that are harder, but there’s nothing I can’t do, to be honest. Some things are more difficult, but that doesn’t mean life is hard. It just means I need to improve myself, to develop more skills.”

“There hasn’t been anything that keeps me from believing.  There’s no doubt in my mind, I follow through. Everything I do now, everything I’m doing with my life, that’s how I stay positive.”

Omari’s transformation came about through a youth program that helped Omari rehabilitate.

“When it first happened, I didn’t know what to do. I thought my life was over, I felt powerless.”

The program provided support that Omari needed. There were individuals Omari looked up to, and through his involvement in the program Omari found his path.

Omari now works for a health and rehabilitation non-profit that focuses on self-improvement, social well-being and finding healthy habits. Instead of treatment and prescriptions they focus on preventative action and personal fulfillment.

Omari realized that he wanted to change the world by changing other’s lives, and his work at the non-profit fulfilled that desire.

“We care about changing other people for the better, to help someone help themselves. That’s the way to help someone, that’s how you help them get what they want. And that’s when you get what you want.”

Omari works primarily with kids that are going through similar circumstances that he experienced. He helps them by showing them the means to succeed through their struggles.

Omari is inspired by his team and their purpose. He has found his passion in a community that he believes in and has become friends with amazing people.

“There’s people there that actually want to make a change. And the change is really there.”

When asked about independence and how comfortable Omari was accepting help, he lit up.

“Yes, I’d love help! You help me and I’ll help you. Let’s go, let’s do it.”

“I want to have a healthy relationship with everyone, that’s what I care about. And to do that, I have to have a healthy relationship with myself.”

Omari was not thinking of help that he just takes from other people, he meant cooperation. Omari wants everyone involved to benefit by helping each other.

“We’re all here as equals. I just want to be treated equally, to get help and give it too.”

By following his passion Omari has found meaning in his life.

Omari has realized that it is our choice to be happy, and our choice to be great.

“Be who you want to be, do what you want to do, and feel good doing it.”

Omari is certain that whatever he does, he wants to help people.

Omari conquered his struggle with a heart full of generosity. The accident was terrible, but its pain was transformative.

“I see the true value in it. I’ve learned how powerful everything you say and everything you do is.”

“It is the biggest thing that’s ever happened to me. It’s still an open wound, it’s not fully closed, but it is greatly healed.”

Omari lives with a passion that is infectious, his positive energy is inspiring in a way words cannot explain.

Omari suggested we ask a question to everyone else:

“What keeps you going? What’s your drive?”

“What’s the one thing you’ve always wanted to do, and why aren’t you doing it?