Seeing the world is a beautiful thing. Seeing it behind glasses can be difficult, especially if your prescription needs to be updated or you simply have smudges on your lenses. I got my first pair of glasses when I was in fourth grade and I was so excited to pick out my frames and a pretty little case! However, I felt a bit self conscious in front of my peers when I had to wear them to see the board at school. Sitting at home and watching TV was a different story though! It was a whole new world being able to see things more clearly!

Thankfully since then, I have become completely confident wearing my glasses. They make me who I am and I had plenty of other things to worry and be self conscious about anyway. As I went through middle school and high school though, more and more people seemed to be getting glasses. I did not stand out anymore. I could have sworn some people did not even need them, they just wore them to be part of the fashion trend.

At times I would wear my glasses just in class, so I would take them off to walk in the hallways between classes. That was not a good idea at all! I could not tell if people down the hall were waving to me or if I even knew them. I probably seemed like a jerk.

I did the same thing a few times while at college too. My brother sat on my glasses by accident...two days before I had to go back to school! They are a bit crooked, but I managed to bend them back enough so that I can wear them. The struggle is too real.

Recently, I seemed like a jerk because I left my glasses off to walk to the bathroom. It is only a few doors over from my dorm room, but as my luck would have it, some girl was walking towards me and said, “Hey, Caitlyn!” I could not tell who she was, so I just replied with a “Hey” back. Of course when she was close enough, I immediately recognized her. I felt so bad for not saying her name. I usually like to use other people's names when I say hello, especially if they say mine first.

Also, I am the type of person who can’t hear people at times if I don’t have my glasses on...yes you read that correctly. I hope I am not the only crazy person and that this happens to others at times. If I ask you to repeat yourself three or four times, try to put yourself in my shoes. I apologize for my seemingly rude manner and for being annoying, but I will not guarantee that it won't happen again.

I hope some people can actually recognize and be understanding in these situations when people like me don’t have their glasses on or their contacts in. We are not being rude, we just cannot see you. To make matters worse, the expenses for sight have gone up. I am going to have to save up for new frames and, unfortunately, deal with my cockeyed spectacles for now.

People with good vision are very lucky. On behalf of all of us with poor vision, I ask only a few things of those with great sight: do not sit on our glasses, do not take them and put them on your own face, and most importantly, do not get offended when we do not say hello right away or fail to say your name.