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Man Regains Vision, Buys a Corvette as First Car

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After regaining your vision, there are worse things to see than a yellow Corvette C7
Photo: Falcon® Photography via CC

It isn’t often that highly-specialized surgical procedures and automotive enthusiasm cross paths, but that’s exactly what happened this month. A 44-year-old legally blind man regained his vision and bought his first car to celebrate. His choice — of which I’m more than a little jealous — was a seventh-generation Chevrolet Corvette.


It’s beyond argument: The 2020 Corvette is a slam-dunk


The backstory

Since he was born, Mike Schickerowski had to deal with an eye condition known as nystagmus. The ailment results in rapid, involuntary movement of the eyes, which makes it virtually impossible to focus on any given subject. In an article from Autoblog’s Ronan Glon, Schickerowski described nystagmus: “If you’ve ever taken a photo with your camera and moved it slightly, or the object moved and it’s a blur, it’s the exact same symptoms. My brain would never interpret the image as a steady picture — it was always a blur.” As a result, he was declared legally blind.

Earlier this year, Schickerowski took the leap and opted into an experimental surgery in California. Though nystagmus was long thought to be incurable, the procedure restored his vision and opened up a world of opportunity that he’d been forced to relegate to the realm of imagination for the last 44 years.

A first step, a huge statement

Imagine that you’re a family person with two kids. You want to treat them to the simple pleasures of childhood, but you quite literally can’t see straight. Think about going through more than 40 years of life unable to drive yourself to the dentist, the grocery store, the movies, or anywhere else under the sun. Finally, pretend you’re coming up with the single coolest way to cast that frustrating time away and charge confidently into the future.

I assure you, whatever you came up with, it’s not as awesome as what Schickerowski did.

After regaining his vision, the first step Schickerowski took was to apply for a driver’s license. Next, he solidified his status as a world-class badass by buying a yellow Chevrolet Corvette C7, sight unseen. Then — befitting a boss of his caliber — he passed his driving exam on the first try.

If that’s not enough, Schickerowski states that driving a dream car isn’t the best part of regaining his vision. According to him, the real reward is taking his son fishing and getting ice cream with his daughter. “I was never able to do that before on my own,” he said.

Feel free to disagree, but it seems that a person being able to see the world clearly for the first time, buying a rockin’ ‘Vette, and being able to engage with their family in a completely new way — all within the same year — might be the best thing to come out of 2020.


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