How often do you take time out of your busy, fast-paced life to stop and smell the roses? Before you answer that, you might want to take a look at the video of a 22-year-old colourblind man who gets emotional on seeing colours for the first time.
Shot by his friends, the 55-second clip shows McKinley ‘Mac’ Erves, a college student residing in LaGrange, Georgia, putting on red-tinted glasses. What follows next will warm the cockles of your heart.
Evidently overwhelmed, Erves covers his mouth with both hands as he soaks in the so-called mundane sights around him. At first, he whispers “wow” and then appears lost for words. “Bro, there’s no way you all see that sh*t,” says Erves as he takes a few steps towards a red car parked on the street.
The fact that I hardly ever mentioned my want for colorblind glasses and my friends literally went out of their way to get me a pair for my birthday just tells me how much they love my ass and I couldn’t have asked for better people to call my brothers!!! pic.twitter.com/0BKOeftxYC
— Mac (@maciavelli_) January 4, 2021
The clip has garnered over 1.8 million likes and has been retweeted 30,000 times.
Erves, who himself posted the video on Twitter, couldn’t help gushing about his friends’ gesture, and said that he “couldn’t have asked for better people” in his life.
In a second video, he is seen exploring more of his surroundings, laughing hysterically as he picks up a leaf or checks out a red truck in the driveway.
As expected, the Twitterati couldn’t help but get emotional. Twitter user Chanelle Waterfalls (@BOO_UWHOREPaez) commented, “Stuff like this makes me so happy because we sometimes take for granted what someone else appreciates to the fullest.”
In the same thread, a netizen who goes by the name Della Reese’s Pinky Toe (@heyitsnataliemb) wrote: “I teared up on how genuinely excited he was to experience seeing colors (sic).”
Same Sis. I teared up on how genuinely excited he was to experience seeing colors.
— Della Reese’s Pinky Toe (@heyitsnataliemb) January 5, 2021
Another Twitter user @SewCouture left a particularly heartfelt comment. “Yes!!! I had perfect vision and could see color until I took the medication when I was 17. Now I’m partially blind and colorblind in one eye Loudly crying face don’t realize what you have until it’s gone (sic).”
Yes!!! I had perfect vision and could see color until I took the medication when I was 17. Now I’m partially blind and colorblind in one eye don’t realize what you have until it’s gone
— BB✨ (@SewCouture) January 5, 2021
Following the Twitterati’s response, Erves posted a video with his friends who helped him get the glasses.
In an interview with Today, Erves said that he hasn’t taken off his glasses during daytime since he got them. “I’ve always seen what I’ve seen, but then when these glasses corrected my vision, it’s something I won’t forget,” he added.
According to the UK-based Colour Blind Awareness organisation, colourblindness or colour vision deficiency affects approximately 1 in 12 men (8%) and 1 in 200 women in the world. Worldwide, there are approximately 300 million people with colour blindness, almost the entire population of the USA.