Yasen Angelov

By Louie Rodriguez
Valencia Voice

Yasen Angelov’s dream is to become a medical doctor, but he states with his European accent, “That simply will never happen, I need to be realistic.” Yasen Angelov was born with glaucoma,
the leading cause of blindness. In Angelov’s country, Bulgaria, many people in his family are medical doctors; you could see why he would wish to aspire to be such a thing.

“There are no major differences between you and I, I am just like everyone else.” He really is, he is married and has kids. Being blind and trying to live one’s life would seem impossible for many but just know there are people out there becoming just as successful as anyone else.“I don’t think this will hold me back, I have all the same opportunities,” said Angelov.

He is in the process of getting citizenship here in America, attending Valencia Community College, and to top it all off he is blind. Yasen is attempting to achieve the American dream. Angelov said, “I just live my life with no obstacles,” everyone should have this mindset.

Angelov explained that when studying it is a lot more difficult for him and that it takes much longer. “It is not about being smart, you just have to be a hard worker,” said Angelov. When asked about what he could see himself realistically doing in the future he responded with “I would like to possibly become a college professor.” Angelov jokingly told this reporter, “So you want to become a journalist? Journalists have to be aggressive in Bulgaria. They should learn to box, they might get hit.” Angelov also stated that in Bulgaria, journalist have to be very careful with who they question, it would not be surprising for one to end up dead.

Yasen Angelov has his head on his shoulders and is moving in the right direction. The future looks bright for this determined man. If there’s anything that we can learn from Angelov it is to never give up, even when one thinks they have hit rock bottom.