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From the "Ouachitonian": Houstin Kirkpatrick

January 01, 2020
Previously published in the 2018 Ouachitonian yearbook. 

For some students, getting to come to college included facing adversities of many kinds. For Houstin Kirkpatrick, a freshman communications and media major from Gurdon, this was especially true.

When Houstin was 3, her parents took her to the doctor because they noticed that she wasn’t looking at things exactly like her brothers were. When she went to her appointment, they found out that she had optic nerve hypoplasia. What they saw was that her optic nerve behind her eyes was as thin as a fishing line when a normal one would be as thick as a pencil. Because of this, she was pronounced legally blind, and she would continue to have vision problems as she got older.

“It was really hard because it meant that I would never get to drive, which is something I’ve always wanted to do,” said Houstin. “It wasn’t really until middle school that people started noticing that I was different from everyone else and some people took advantage of it.”

When Houstin was in eighth grade, she was diagnosed with glaucoma, which is a condition that puts extra pressure within the eyeball and causes the gradual loss of sight.

“I remember listening to a sermon about asking God for answers and to be persistent in doing that. So that’s what I kept doing, hoping that I would get some sort of sign to show me where to go,” she said.

Houstin continued to ask the Lord for help after having to go through six different surgeries for her glaucoma throughout high school. During her senior year, she faced the most difficulty with her sight, which led to a point of her wanting to fix it more than she ever had.

“I was baptized in August of 2017, and I went back to the doctor and he was amazed because the pressure that was as high as 50 had now dropped down to 20, which was the number that we were shooting for.”

The doctor prescribed Houstin some eye drops to help her with her condition, and the pharmacy made a mistake and gave her the wrong kind, but that ended up being what healed her sight.

“I know that was God intervening, and because of that, I can see so much better now. My glaucoma isn’t an issue anymore, which has made me realize how blessed I am. Since then I’ve learned to put my faith and trust in Him because I know that He’ll provide.”

By Jack Bennington


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