Jillian Sloane is blind.
That might be the first thing you notice about her, but soon after it's clear the disability does not define her.
"I am a very visual blind person," she jokes. "I have lots of pictures in my room."
Sloane and her twin sister, Jordan, were born three months premature. Shortly after birth, they were transferred from Dawson Creek to the B.C. Children's hospital in Vancouver.
After several months in an incubator, she developed retinopathy of prematurity, a disease believed to be caused by disorganized growth of retinal blood vessels.
As a child, Jill excelled with limited vision.
"I could see pretty well out of my right eye," she says. "I could read large print and see outlines of people, but I couldn't make out basic details."
At 14, the top half of her sight became blurry.
'We didn't know what it was," she says. "We went to the eye doctor in Dawson Creek. It turned out my retina detached."
After a summer spent back and forth to Edmonton and seven surgeries later, Sloane was left completely blind.
She was about to enter Grade 10 and, on top of the normal angst and awkwardness that comes with those years, Sloane had a whole new level of worry. But it never held her back.
"I am the kind of person that doesn't get upset in front of people that much," Sloane says, admitting there were a few days when she did nothing but sit in her room and listen to music.
"Each time that I would get depressed, I pull myself out of it, because I don't want to live my life like that."
It's a symptom of her stubborn, outgoing personality.
"I'm a very social person. I could never just sit in my room, be depressed and not talk to anyone."
It's an attitude she developed with some help from her family.
"The fact that my mom never put me in a bubble helped a lot," Sloane says.
"She never sheltered me. I was in dance and soccer, I went to public school like my brother and sister."
Sloane got a job at Safeway before starting classes at Northern Lights College this fall.
The Canadian Institute for the Blind's (CNIB) summer camp, which she attended each summer until aging out, played a big role in fostering the kind of ambition that gives Sloane inspiration to chase after a degree in social work.
Sloane will be a guest speaker and participant at Night Steps, a CNIB walk in Prince George on Saturday. The five-kilometre walk, from 5 to 6:30 p.m. at Masich Place, will help raise money for others affected by blindness or other visual impairments.
It's a chance to give back to the organization that helped her find a world of happiness without sight.
Sloane says she really hit her stride at camp, where she could truly fit in.
"I wasn't singled out like, 'Oh, hey, that's the blind chick,' like I was at school," she said. "Everyone at camp is just the same. It helped me a lot to be comfortable with being fully blind and to accept it. I never let it stop me from doing what I wanted to do."
