Successfully receiving a US visa (签证) is full of ups and downs. In early 2023, I received an offer to join in the Sports Industry Management Summer Program at Georgetown University in the US. Never having been to the US before, I was thrilled about the upcoming _________.

However, my excitement turned into shock when I _________ a scheduled interview appointment at the US embassy (大使馆) in New Delhi in early May. The waiting list was so long that it _________ all the way to September, well _________ the start of the summer program in July.

Still, that wasn't the only _________ we faced with the US embassy. A friend planning to visit France mentioned that the visa application process now took two months longer than before. It seemed that an increasing number of people were applying to travel abroad. I waited until mid-July before _________ giving up on the summer program for 2023.

At last, I secured an appointment for Sept 18, 2023. After all these difficulties, I thought I could finally get my US visa. During the interview, the visa officer, a pleasant woman, began asking me a few questions. Then there was _________ as she typed on her keyboard for five minutes. I though that the exciting moment was coming. _________, after smiling at my mom and _________ a green form to her, she said, "Sorry, but due to your job, we require __________ documents."

As a journalist, my mother was required by the green form to email a list of her published stories. Fortunately, she specializes in __________ and art, with hundreds of articles on cultural exchanges and interpersonal communications between India and the US. I don't know whether or not her touching stories __________ the visa officer. After all, the embassy gave us 10-year visas after about a week.

With the visa, I am applying for the summer program for 2024 now. If you're planning to travel abroad, I __________ starting the visa process early, __________ many others likely have the same plans. Your parents' jobs can also affect your visa application, so make sure you do some __________ and are ready to provide extra documents.

I never knew I was legally blind until my 17th birthday. I'd been going to ________ all the time to support my sister because of her eyes. That day, I also got ________ and was told that I had the same: ________ as my sister. I could finally make sense of my very ________ vision.

After that day, I never spoke about it.

When I was 26, I got a job. I was always trying to be better in the ________ that nobody would ever discover my condition.

At work, I used humor to ________ my disability. Even smaller things would ________ me, like being unable to see the gender symbol on the toilet door, but I tried very hard to find ________ so that my colleagues couldn't “catch me out.”

Over time, I became worn out trying to ________ that I could see. I had to see my doctor. It was a(n) ________ moment in my healing journey. The doctor told me that it wasn't my eyes that were the problem, it was my ________ with my eyes. He also told me I had damaged my eyes by not being ________ for my vision and not asking for help. He advised me to take some time off work so that my eyes could recover. On that day, I ________ to begin the journey that I am on today, of ________ who I am.

Since then, I've been myself, doing social activities. I've stopped ________ about what other people think and whether I am going to fail.