I remember in elementary school I sat in the nurse's office. I wasn't sick. I didn't hurt myself. I was crying. One of my classmates thought it was cool to pick on me for wearing glasses. I'm glad he called me weird, and I'm glad I got upset, because if I didn't I wouldn't have met the nurse who cheered me up. She told me "Next time someone picks on you tell them 'four eyes are better than two, I can see better you.'" I laughed and began to appreciate the glasses I had to wear.
But I wasn't happy. I appreciated the glasses, but I didn't appreciate my vision. I was constantly angry that my sight was so bad that I was required to wear glasses. Constantly wiping them, watching them fog up, get wet, or slide down my nose was tedious enough for me. What made it worse was the people around me with perfect sight that made comments like "If you wear glasses all the time, your eyes will grow dependent on them," and "Maybe you shouldn't have sat so close to the TV."
OK, I'm pretty sure at age 5 years old, I sat at a large oak table eating cereal while the TV was basically 10 feet away from me. Every. Single. Day.
Of course, one question that does get asked a lot is, "Have you thought about contacts?" Yes, of course, I have...but only for two seconds. The idea of contacts scared me because my eyelids flutter and twitch a lot in a strenuous effort to keep things out of my eyes. I couldn't imagine breaking that strong force to stick something in my eyes.
Twenty-two years later, I'm sitting in the eye doctor's office frustrated at my fluttering eyelids that are preventing the doctor from putting the first contact in. As soon as she put the left contact in for me and I actually looked around and adjusted, I cried. I saw the room clearly, even from my peripheral vision and it felt like I was missing out on so much in life that whole time. With practice, I got better with handling the contacts.
One night, I was walking with my friend as it was lightly snowing. Typically I don't bother with the weather since my glasses like to create snowflake patterns on my lenses. However; I did look at the sky as I was walking past a lamp post and was in complete awe. I watched each distinct snowflake fall from the beautiful night sky and into my eyes and on my face. I could see it! That's what really got to me.
I know it would be hard for some people to understand, but going from a blurry vision to perfect vision without a piece of plastic sitting on your face is truly one of the best experiences for me. Because life is beautiful and I get to truly see it for that.
