Once upon a time, Leo was a normal eight-year-old boy in 3rd grade. His best friend, Sawyer, was in his class this year. They have been friends since 1st grade.

Sawyer always helped Leo with colors. Especially with the colors of the rainbow, since they needed to learn them like they learned the alphabet. 

Although, sometimes Leo had difficulty deciding which color was which. Most of them seemed to blend together. When Sawyer would say, "This is red, yellow, and orange," all Leo saw when he looked at those colors was what he thought was green.

"Leo, the rainbow goes red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple."

"I know, Sawyer, but it doesn't look like six colors to me. I only see three colors."

Blue

 Red

 Orange

Yellow

Green

Since kindergarten, Leo had the most trouble telling red from green. He would always mess up his trees, grass, and even his own hair color when drawing in art class. 

The only person that knew how much Leo struggled with colors was Sawyer. Leo was too embarrassed to tell his teacher, Mrs. Azul, or even his parents.

 BY: Leo

Instead, Leo would try and use different colors to solve this problem. As a young child, he had an amazing imagination. His teacher was so impressed by his creations.

"Wow, Leo," Mrs. Azul said, "your painting is amazing! Look at all those colors you used!"

Leo loved art class and especially painting. He felt that he did not need to worry about which colors he used, since all his classmates and teacher thought he was just creative.

"Your painting is amazing!"

"This one is my painting, Mrs. Azul! Do you like it?"

"Wow!"

As the school year began to pass, Leo started to have more problems with colors. There was a time, Leo drew a picture of his family in class and he thought it looked great. 

"Look everyone," said his classmate, Josh, "Leo's family is green. They must be aliens from Mars!"

Everyone in the class began to laugh, while Leo began to tear up. Leo does not like being different from the other kids.

"Leave Leo alone. I like his picture because it is different!" declares Sawyer.

"HAHAHAHA!!"

"Leave Leo alone."

Another scenario with colors became an issue for Leo. He was supposed to bring his red homework folder home, but instead he brought his green "stay-at-school" folder. 

This has happened to Leo numerous times throughout the school year. Eventually, his teacher and parents became frustrated. They constantly explained to Leo the differences between the folders. He tried his hardest to understand, but he could not tell the two folders apart. He thought that they were the same color.

"Leo, that is the wrong folder. That is your green folder that is supposed to stay at school."

One day, Leo's mom took him to an eye doctor, Dr. Stevens, for a check-up. The doctor showed him a card of pictures made out of colored dots that have numbers or shapes in a different color hidden in them. 

"What do you see?" said Dr. Stevens.

All Leo could see was blobs of color. 

"I don't see a number. Am I supposed to?" Leo asked uncertainly.

What number do you see?

After the eye exam, the doctor told them the news. 

"Leo," said Dr. Stevens, "you have what is called Color Vision Deficiency, but some people also call it color blindness. You have the red-green color blindness."

"What does that mean?" asked his mother.

"It means that Leo has the most trouble telling the difference between red and green," explained Dr. Stevens.

"What does that mean?"

"You have what is called Color Vision Deficiency."

"Everything finally makes sense!" exclaimed his mother.

The doctor gives her a confused look.

"Leo has really been struggling in school," she explained.

Leo's color confusion made him feel bad about himself. He thought that he must not be very smart.

Now that Leo understood his condition he was able to make some adjustments.

"Everything finally makes sense!"