The Eyes Have It

Not to turn this into the "John goes to the Doctor" blog, but I went to see an optometrist today, which I probably would not have done if the little one hadn't broken my glasses.

And that's another subject. I first got glasses when I was in junior high, though I really wanted them when I was much younger, just because my parents both wore glasses. So when I went in for the kindergarten screening, I intentionally failed a test in the hopes of getting glasses. I was not, however, as clever as I'd hoped, because I failed the wrong test. They thought my ability to process what I saw was what was screwed up.

So I didn't get glasses at age 5, but did get them 8 or 9 years later when I started developing headaches from reading, which was problematic since I read a lot. It turned out that one of my eyes was far-sighted and the other was near-sighted, so the two didn't play well together and I got headaches. Glasses for me.

By then, naturally, I was not so keen on having glasses, so either in my freshman year of high school, I tried contacts, but I always hated how they felt on my eyes and just couldn't get used to them--glasses for me!

I've always had a fairly weak prescription. In fact, I've never been legally required to wear glasses when I drive, as I've always managed to pass the vision test (there was a time or two when I wondered if they actually checked the letters I was saying or if they just assumed if you could see anything that looked like a name-able letter, then you were good to go). 

Over the years, I've had different styles of frames, and for a while even a different style of lens: the wildly un-stylish "transition" lenses that my friends jokingly referred to as "amber vision." In any case, I've had glasses now for longer than I haven't had glasses, including all of my adult and most of my adolescent life.

And now, I don't. The last time I went to an optometrist, four and a half years ago, I was told that my eyes had gotten themselves more or less back to 20-20, though I had astigmatisms in both eyes that would cause details to be just a bit blurry (and it wouldn't matter whether things were near or far, it would still be true). This time around, the eye doctor told me that one eye was a little less than perfect, though my two eyes together can manage "better than perfect" vision. I do still have astigmatisms, but if they don't really bother me (I've gone almost a week without glasses), then he's doesn't see why I need glasses. No more glasses for me!

But really, it's rather strange. I mean, I feel like I've always had glasses. Every picture depicts me with glasses. They're virtually a part of me, or so it seemed. Ah well: I'm sure I'll need glasses again soon enough, in the grand scheme of things!