Girl fights through blindness

      She remembers colors and cartoon characters like Bugs Bunny. She wishes she could see her mother's face again and pictures of her family. But these memories are all Raquel Silva has left since the 16-year-old Pahrump Valley High student lost sight in both of her eyes.
      Hard as it may be, though, don't feel sorry for her.
      "Rocky," as her uncle nicknamed her for enduring numerous surgeries, doesn't want anyone's pity. She certainly doesn't feel sorry for herself, at least not anymore.
      "It was really hard (at first) and a lot of times I felt sorry for myself, but I think my faith in God made it a lot easier to handle. He taught me that you don't have to see physically to overcome," said Silva, who has been completely blind since age 13. "I believe that God made it that way, that there's a purpose. I think he knew that if I had more challenges in life I'd do better."
      Silva, who suffers from congenital glaucoma, has faced more than her share of challenges, namely losing all sight in her right eye when she was just 6 before going completely blind at age 13. But as her mother, Irene Pederson, said, "She's never let anything stop her from doing the things she's wanted to."
      Said Silva: "I don't have to be afraid of anything. Some other blind people use it as a crutch. They don't realize how much they can do."
      Silva does plenty despite being blind. She loves swimming and going to the movies, though she often has to remind her companions to tell her what's going on.
      "My mom says, `He's talking to her right now.' Well, I know that," she said. "Where are they?"
      Silva has gone bike riding -- she memorized her driveway -- and still goes roller skating. She enjoys needlepoint, plays the guitar and sings. She's active in youth groups and in her church. She likes to cook, but unfortunately has to do other chores around the house as well, such as mowing the lawn, vacuuming, doing the dishes and taking out the garbage.
      "I always tried to let her be independent," Pederson said.
      Silva ran track her freshman year of high school and was recently accepted into the National Honor Society. She has a 3.9 grade-point average, and her ultimate goal is to be school valedictorian next year.
      Despite her success in the classroom, Silva had a hard time adjusting to school.
      "In school, the toughest part was trying to get along with the other kids," she said. "They knew I was blind and they teased me."
      Silva has plenty of friends now, including a boyfriend, but still struggles to fit in at times.
      "The hardest thing is whenever other kids are going off and doing sports or getting real active in things and they leave me out because I can't see it," she said. "I'm sitting there listening to the other kids having fun and I can't do it. It's like there's a wall blocking me out.
      "I don't get too attached to friends because after a while I feel like I'm a burden. So I hang around a lot of people."