Everyday, I wake up on my bed in the morning. Instinctively, I would open my eyes. I do not have to look out of the window to know if its morning or night, the surrounding which is pretty bright would have already gave me obvious clues. Many of ask take many things for granted and our sense of sight is just one of them.

Ben Underwood is one of the a group of people who has lost his sight at a very young age due to a cancer called retinoblastoma. At 3, when he was just a toddler, he undergo a 11 hours long surgery to have his eyes removed, due to a tumor at his sinus cavity. However, instead of looking through his eyes, he has created for himself a unique way to navigate and see the world in front of him, that is "seeing" with his ears.

At the age of just 5, he has learned by himself echolocation, which is done by clicking his tongue and then listening carefully to the sound waves that bounce of the surroundings or any objects. The extent of his ability went out to help him identify objects in his path to the remarkable standard of identifying and describing the object's shape, size, texture, etc. Although it might seem incredible to be able to echolocate, the majority of us can to, but definitely not to the extent of people like Ben, who has been practicing every single moment of his life.

An experiment was conducted by Eric Schwitzgebel and Michael S. Godon of University of California, Riverside, in which blind people and sighted but blind-folded ones were made to go through a series of test to compare how developed their echolocation skills are. The full experiment can be found here. From it, we learn that in fact, everyone is able to echolocate with some practice and they can do it to the accuracy similar to blind people. Even in their daily lives, people do echolocate, but these do not happen on the conscious level.

For Ben and many others like him, the ability to echolocate has definitely brought new hope and perspectives to their lives. When Ben came round from the surgery to remove both eyes, he was crying, saying, "I can't see you anymore mommy, I can't see you," and his mother Aquanetta Gordon said, "You can smell me, you can hear me and you have got your ears, nose and mouth."

Now, Ben is very positive in his life and could serve as a role model for others who are like him. He does not see himself as a handicap at all and insist upon joining the normal school and not the handicap one, even to the extent of not using a cane. This will change as he learns through Daniel Kish how limited echolocation can be and how with the cane the loopholes can be filled. Despite his disadvantage, Ben is a very active person, often running, rollerblading, skateboarding, playing basketball, football, and videogames.

There always so many people that encourage us through the amazing feats they do as they continue to live courageously despite being disadvantaged. The next amazing person to hear about would be how a person overcome and live his life despite being blind and deaf. It would be the greatest misfortune.