Glasses; who says they aren't cool?

SPOILER!! I wear glasses!

I found my old laptop that I done most of my school work on and came across an essay about my glasses. This was actually an essay I submitted for my higher English folio, and hey, I passed! Be warned, it's pretty ridiculous. If you're currently doing Higher English (ha ha) and wear glasses, this might give you some inspiration, but remember -plagiarism is wrong.

Also, side note, this isn't my best work. Reading it back I'm annoyed with some of the stupid mistakes I made, but hey, you live and learn.

Anyway, *deap breath*, here it is!

Glasses

It’s a heartbreaking and devastating moment when the optician turns to you and reveals that you definitely need glasses. Sixteen years living in the norm, as one of the crowd, then suddenly given a new, unwanted identity. How I had never figured out it was only me who saw the world as blurry confusion I’ll never know.

It seemed like it had happened overnight. Suddenly I didn’t have my perfect vision and I couldn’t read from a distance. I decided it must have been the lighting, or the font size, anything but this. Surprisingly, I received no pity. I was told I was being dramatic and to calm down. Calm down? This was my eyesight! Would I suddenly wake up tomorrow with no vision at all? A girl at the table next to me overheard my fear and being a glasses wearer, understanding my situation, handed me her glasses. I couldn’t believe it. As a kid you always try someone’s glasses on and think ‘wow’, your eyesight is terrible. Not this time. As I put them on, not knowing this would become a daily routine, my vision became focused and my eyes relaxed. I could see. It was a moment where I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. Could it really be true? Was I really turning into this person? I’m not sure why I was so reluctant towards glasses, I just assumed my eyesight was perfect, I would never need glasses. It just wasn’t me. But does someone’s opinion really change if you’re wearing glasses? It seems immature, but I had it in my head glasses were for certain type of people, and I was above that. Looking back it seems like a crazy thought.

Obviously I ran home declaring my life was over and that an eye test was a must. Of course, the next week there I was, getting a picture of my eye taken, reading out letters I could barely make out, still insisting I didn’t need them. The glasses hung on the wall at the opticians, judging me. I was being watched. They knew what was coming; the moment my life would ultimately change. I could no longer watch TV without them, forced to wear two glasses for a 3D film. So which glasses would I choose: would I go outrageous and in your face, or mellow and sophisticated? Nope. I’d choose the first pair, say they were fine and get the hell out of there. 

There I was, a moment I had never truly anticipated, collecting my first pair of glasses. I remember bringing my friend, not just for company but for moral support. As I walked in it was almost as if it was a scene out of a movie. The opticians were smiling, the glasses laughing as I slowly opened my new case. As I planted them on my face I was in genuine shock, I felt like I was suddenly living in HD. This was an indescribable moment, my blurry mass of confusion was suddenly clear, it was as if I was growing up, truly seeing the world for what it is. I kept taking them on and off to compare how I used to live. This was the beginning; I felt like a new person. On the bus home I read out the signs, suddenly noticing they existed. Who knew you could see the serrated edges on the leaves, or the wrinkles on a persons face from 10 feet away? This was a whole new world.

I remember school where at first I refused to wear them until I thought, “Lets just get this over with.” It was the talk of the class. Everyone asked “Did you get new glasses?” “Can I try them on?”

Surprisingly, I got no abuse, apart from blaming my eyes for failing at their duty to allow me to see. I couldn’t help thinking, I’m one of ‘them’. I’m a four eyed freak, a ‘speccy.’ When someone would look at me it seemed as though they were only staring at the thick frame planted on my face. I just didn’t want glasses to be my ‘thing’.

For some reason glasses are seen as ‘uncool’ and if you wear them you instantly become a nerd. Yet I’ve become used to them, they are, although still painfully annoying, part of who I am now. I need them to see and if I’m judged for that then so be it.

Perhaps its really a blessing in disguise that I got them at this stage rather than in childhood. Children can be mean, immature about things like this, although, being a teenager, they don’t exactly match the ‘cool’ image we’re all trying to pursue. Not the best look, but a look I’m forced to accept. I always thought I’d one day own glasses, I had just assumed most of my life would be over by then, not just beginning. 

It’s the type of thing where only someone who knows what you’ve been through will get why you still ramble on about it. When I pass another glasses-wearer on the street its as though we’re telepathically telling each other, “We’re the cool ones”. Until you’re told that your eyesight needs improving, you’ll never know what it feels like to be part of this glasses-wearing minority. The whole experience definitely changed me, when I was given my vision I could not only see clearly, I could see myself mature and was given a lot of perspective. I could now see the consequences and see a path into my future, a clear future.

There came a time where I decided to accept my disability, and embrace it. Although, saying that, I will be wearing contact lenses in the future, not just to be ‘normal’ again, but because at least then no one will ask to try them on.

Just incase one photo isn't enough...

Oh dear. To clarify, I'm completely fine* with wearing glasses now, and there's no reason anyone shouldn't be!


*slight exaggeration.

No on a serious note, glasses are something a lot of people with perfect eyesight crave. You see it all the time, people wearing 'fake' glasses. It's no longer 'uncool' or 'nerdy', and if people still think it is, who cares! If you're worried about what people think - like I was - then you really need to STOP CARING. People will judge you if you have perfect eyesight or not. 


Sian x