When illness completely stole Travis Freeman’s sight at 12 years old, his dream of playing football felt dead. However, the unshakable kid found a way to overcome the impossible and not only play football, but become a champion.
A severe migraine attacked Travis after he’d returned from a week at summer camp. Multiple visits to doctors in different cities yielded no diagnosis. Not until an eye doctor saw something that sent Travis to the hospital clinging to his life. The undiagnosed condition was Cavernous Sinus Thrombosis, an infection attacking his ocular nerve. Doctors saved his life, but not his sight.
Doctors warned that he would go through a period of depression, but Travis never did. Instead this determined young man attacked learning to live in a sighted world with inspiring ferocity. “God let this happen to me for a reason,” Travis said.
Opting to stay at his school instead of attending the Kentucky School for the Blind, Travis was surrounded by a support system that had known him most of his life. That included the junior high football coach who found a spot on the team for Travis, not as a manager or water boy, but as a player. That year, with Travis playing Center, his team won the championship. Travis continued to play football all through high school, astonishing other teams and officials across the state.
Write with heart warming openness and honesty, Travis gives us an inside look at what happens with the unthinkable happens.
As the mother of a child who had medical conditions that drew us from hospital to hospital and doctor to doctor for eight years, I felt for this family who was hit out of the blue with this incident.Our son was diagnosed at 3 and was healed by the time he was 11 but in those eight years I marveled at the resiliency of a child to accept and move forward. And that is what Travis has done.
As mentioned in the book synopsis, Travis did not go through depression - but what it doesn't mention is the humor Travis met his blindness with. There were more than a few antidotes in the book that had me laughing out loud.
I was truly inspired by this young man's acceptance and even embracing of his blindness.
If you only pick up one non-fiction book this year - this should be it. The book is highly recommended and I can't wait to see the movie it inspired!
Jody
My copy of this book was generously provided by Glass Road Media.
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