I'm a Synesthete!

Original My Space post date: November 2, 2006

Ever since I can remember, I have seen my numbers and letters as colors. "Whaaat?" you're probably saying. Yes, it's true. My head is swimming with colorful numbers and letters, and they come together when I am spelling, or adding or subtracting. I never thought anything of it; so much so that I never told anyone about it in my life – until this past year.
I revealed to my boyfriend that I had this affliction and to my surprise, he told me it wasn't normal. "That's weird!" he told me. "Like what do you mean?" I said, "Well, in my head and on paper, the number one is blue, two is red, three is blue, four is yellow, five is blue, six is orange, seven is yellow, eight is green, nine is red…and so on." He looked at me as though an alien had just grown out of my face. After I told him, he would occasionally tease me about it and we laughed at it, until the day he found out that it is a real condition that many people suffer from.
He was reading an old issue of Scientific American (insert laugh here) at work, and there was an article about "synethesia". Synethesia is described as a condition where two senses are intertwined, thus leaving the person able to see numbers and letter as colors, or hear shapes as sounds or even see days of the week as having a personality. It is usually genetic and at one time was thought to be caused by mind enhancing drugs such as acid, or caused by a stroke. Many people who have synethesia use their experiences in their creative process. I guess that explains my career choice!
Anyways, I have read more about synthesia since then. Click this link to read more about it on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synesthesia. I don't think that I have it to the most extreme degree, where some people are so bad that it inhibits their daily lives, and can't read a book without the colors blaring in their faces. I do however see it most when I am doing math, especially math problems in my head. I read that this is most likely the cause for my poor, pathetic math skills (including the only class I ever failed in my entire life – high school Trig!!). I also learned that music artist Pharrell shares this condition with me. I actually think it's quite cool to be able to diagnose this condition which I thought was nothing at all! But my boyfriend still thinks I'm weird.