Freshman Rebecca Veeck clutches a white sheet of paper.

“My monologue,” she said, “I’m trying out for Beauty and the Beast.”

She seems like your average girl, trying to be a part of something, trying to get involved in high school. Making the best of freshman year.

If you look closer, though, you can see small bumps imprinted into the paper. Braille. Rebecca has Retinitis Pigmentosa. It is a disease that causes loss of sight to progress over time.

“I was diagnosed in first grade. I was six years old.”

The news was met with fear. It was also met with confusion. After all, Rebecca was only six, too young to understand that her eyes were not the same as every one else’s. They were not as strong.

“My parents were really depressed so I couldn’t talk to them about it. They probably felt like it was their fault, but it wasn’t. It was no one’s fault,” Veeck says.

Rebecca grew older and school became a place of both refuge and discomfort.

“I went to Mt. Pleasant Academy for elementary school and it was great. Then I went to Moultrie, and even Porter Gaud for a year. The teachers didn’t understand me, though, they didn’t know how to approach me.”

Then came high school. A place that causes insecurities for everyone. Let alone a girl with a cane.

Rebecca is not alone, however. She has her friends and she has Sylvia Williams. Williams is a teacher assistant that helps Rebecca throughout the day.

“I help keep her binders organized and match up her class work with her Braille,” Ms. Williams said. “Most of her school work is Braille and she can’t see to write so she has a patent mate that she types on to take notes. I help her with those things also.”

Williams walks through the halls with Rebecca. “She can find her way around but she still needs a cane for safety reasons,” William said.

“Wando makes me use a cane and I don’t like it. I know it’s a safety issue, but I still don’t like it. I never use one at home,” Veeck said indignantly. “It makes kids look at me. They’re saying things about me. I know they’re saying ‘there’s that blind girl.’ I don’t like being categorized.

“She has good days and bad days. She’s just like any other 14-year-old girl. She had to make adjustments for high school.”

Although Rebecca deals with people’s whispers, she has friends who understand. Who stand up for her and explain that she is just like everyone else. That she can take care of herself. And as of now, she basically can. Rebecca is stable.

“The doctors don’t know if I’ll lose all of my sight. Right now I’m stable so my sight is not changing. But that doesn’t mean that one day I could wake up and it could all be gone. One day I could be having a conversation with someone and then, BOOM. It could all be gone.”

Rebecca deals with questions all of the time. “I don’t mind as long as people ask nicely,” she said. “How did you…” and “Why can’t you…” are overshadowed though by “So what can you see?” That is a question she hears a lot. Because people are interested. Because people want to know how much less sight she has than them. Why she uses that cane…..

“I can see colors, shapes and outlines,” Veeck said.

Colors. Shapes. Outlines. But what about sunsets, mountains, snow?

“My parents took me traveling so if I do lose all of my sight I can say I’ve seen the world. I’ve been to 35 states, Mexico and Ireland. I want to go to the Bahamas now. I really want to go to the Bahamas,” she said.

Rebecca may have seen the world, but it is words she has trouble seeing.

“I can’t read print. I know it’s there I just can’t make it out,” she says. “That is something that people take for granted. Reading. They look at it as a hassle, especially if it’s for school but they should appreciate it.”

Rebecca is not bitter. In fact she embraces her life, and her blindness.

“Each day as she becomes more mature, things get better for her,” said Williams.

You can see that as she holds her Braille imprinted monologue. A smile across her face, just as excited, just as nervous as the girls with big, black, fat letter printed papers. She is just as ready for the spotlight.