Two years ago when dad told us he had been diagnosed with melanoma, he gave us each a gift of money that he said he wanted to see us spend it on whatever we wanted.

I took the “see” part literally, and decided to spend it on LASIK surgery; something that he could see me enjoy and would help me see better for the rest of my life.

There are some days that I can just sit back and appreciate fine details of things as simple as tree bark, blades of grass, or man-made structures that I could never see as well before.

Of all the surgeries I’ve experienced, LASIK had to be the strangest experiences I’ve had. The procedure is done while being fully awake and only with local anesthesia. When my eyes’ corneas were pulled back, and the world turned into a starry expanse of nothing, I realized just how much we take vision for granted.

I’m thankful we now live in a world with such powerful medical technology and doctors who can truly fix what would have been irreparable only a decade earlier. And thank you to my dad for a gift (among many others) that extend my livelihood to a greater potential.