My Synesthesia

Discovering I Had It

So of course, there was a point where I knew NOTHING about synesthesia. Many synesthetes don't know they have such perceptual diversity. So let me take you through how I found out I had it.

I was in fifth grade when I was first introduced to synesthesia. My school had an annual book fair, so I was excited to get some new books to read. My first selection was a book called Out of My Mind by Sharon M. Draper. That's where it all began. The book was about a girl who had a condition called cerebral palsy, so she couldn't walk or talk. She was super smart, and no one really knew, so she struggled to show the world what she could really do. I highly recommend reading the book because it's EPIC. But in the book it was mentioned that the girl, Melody, had synesthesia, more specifically, chromesthesia. She could see colors whenever she heard music. This is one of the types I have, and when I realized I had it, I was kind of surprised that not everyone saw the world this way. But I didn't really look into it more, so I kind of just dismissed it.

Earlier this year (sixth grade), I got sick so I had to stay home for a few days. During those few days, I decided to read the book again. With the free time I had, I chose to type the word that would change my life into the Google search bar: Synesthesia.

At first, I decided to just click the link to the Wikipedia page on it (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synesthesia or https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synesthesia for mobile devices), and as I read more about it, I realized how many more types I had. It was crazy. It was like I'd been taken into a whole new world. With that, I searched for videos on YouTube (I'll put links in a future part), found more webpages, and a whole lot of other stuff.

As I've said, don't be afraid to tell me about how you discovered it, write stories about it (give me a link! :D), or even just send me links on stuff you've found about synesthesia.

Keep bee-lieving! :D

~Bee-liever Apple