One Drink Robbed Her of Her Vision

Ashley King offers a cautionary tale in the Guardian that doubles as an inspirational one. Back in 2011, on the last night of a vacation in Bali, King and her best friend partied all night in the tourist town of Kuta. The next morning, however, King struggled with symptoms that went far beyond a typical hangover. She struggled to form sentences, see straight, and even breathe. It was only after she went to the hospital that doctors figured out the problem: She had consumed a drink laced with methanol. (King recalls a fruity vodka mixer at one bar in particular.) Even a small amount of methanol can be lethal, and doctors weren't sure King would survive. She did, but at a price: Blindness.

"I would wake up every day hoping that I could see," she recalls. "And the worst part was that I still dreamed in vivid color." Fourteen years later, there have been no miracles—King has only 2% vision today. "It looks like snowfall or a TV screen, or salt-and-peppery," she says. "And it's all in a sepia tone." She recounts going through denial as a young woman, once even being hit by a car as she went out with friends and tried to pretend nothing was different. Then came the feelings of despair of what was lost.

And yet, "many of her initial fears proved unfounded," the story explains. "Two years after she lost her eyesight, she went backpacking to seven countries in South America: she climbed volcanoes, swam with sharks and began to share her experience of methanol poisoning with other travelers." She studied journalism and fulfilled a dream of studying drama, too. "Yes, there are physical things I can't do, like drive a car, but the things that truly matter to me, I've found a way to make them happen." (Read the full story.)