As this email hits your inbox, I am likely sitting in an eye doctor’s waiting room. There’s nothing wrong, just a regular checkup. As someone who has worn glasses nearly her whole life, I’ve spent a lot of hours in eye doctor offices. The phrase “Is this better or worse?” is seared into my brain.
Chances are better than good that I was born with bad eyesight, but I didn’t get my first pair of glasses until second grade. Weirdly enough, I have a distinct memory of having to walk up to the front of the room regularly to see the chalkboard in first grade, but apparently my first grade teacher didn’t think this behavior warranted recommending to my parents that I have my eyes checked. More often now I see kids starting out with glasses much younger so I guess we’ve gotten much better at identifying potential vision issues.
Honestly given my family history, I’m surprised that they weren’t checking my vision from an early age, but again, maybe that’s not something that was done back in the 1970s. It’s certainly not as if a young child can tell their parents that they don’t see well, because if you’re born with bad eyesight you just assume that’s the way the world is supposed to look. Very recently, thanks to the internet, I learned that it’s only those with bad eyesight and astigmatism who see “halos” around streetlights, car lights and traffic lights when driving at night. I had just assumed that’s how it looked to everyone because that’s how it looked to me while wearing the glasses or contact lenses that are technically supposed to make me see like someone with perfect vision.
My grandfather (on Dad’s side) had atrocious eyesight—even worse than mine. It meant that he was listed as 4F when young men were getting drafted and enlisted to fight in World War II, and this being different times this is something he was always a little bit ashamed of. Though it was no fault of his own, there was a stigma about being exempt from fighting due to medical issues.
Jump forward a generation and my father who had the severe nearsightedness that runs in our family (Well, in his good eye. He is legally blind in his bad eye) was exempt from military service at a time when young men were being drafted to fight in Viet Nam. This was a different sort of war, though, and attitudes had changed so this exemption didn’t carry with it the same stigma as my grandfather’s medical exception.
My dad’s two younger brothers also have the nearsightedness that runs in our DNA, and there’s a rumor about one of my uncles actually faking an eye exam to get himself into the reserves or the National Guard or something until some higher up caught wind of this deceit.
Our lineage is headed in the right direction. though. My sister and I both have bad eyesight, but there are actually some cousins who have decent eyesight, and while my niece didn’t manage to dodge the bullet, my nephew has never needed to wear glasses.
I can say that my own eyesight is not nearly as bad as those from the generation that preceded me, but it’s still bad enough to make the staff at eyeglasses stores visibly gasp when they see it. I don’t know if there will be any change once the doctor has a good look at my peepers, but as I write this my correction is -9.75 and -9.50—oh yeah, my eyes are close but not exactly equally bad. So, that helps to keep things interesting! As someone who regularly wears contact lenses, I know from experience that accidentally mixing up my left and right lenses is something that will result in a massive headache. So, I try to be extra careful with that.
One recent change that I think a lot of people my age have experienced is that now when wearing contacts, I need to wear reading glasses to read a book or see my phone screen or type on the computer. If I have my glasses on and am struggling to see a screen or a book, I can simply lift my glasses up and close one eye (because of the whole different prescriptions in each eye thing) to get a better look at the small text.
As disabilities go, it’s really nothing bad. Sometimes it’s annoying, but again I’ve been like this pretty much my whole life so I’m used to it.
— Alissa
Weekly Inspiration
What I’m Reading: Pearl by Siân Hughes
What I’m Watching: St. Denis Medical
What I’m Listening to: “Viva La Vida” by Coldplay
Find out more about my books at alissagrosso.com
Find out more about my art at alissacarin.com
My apologies for the typos and such this post is almost certainly riddled with.
Creativity and Contentment 
10 responses to “How I See Things”
I’m on the opposite end of the seeing spectrum. I spot wildlife (and pennies on the sidewalk) sooner than anyone else. I did have cataracts removed right around the time COVID hit, and I need glasses for things like reading and brain surgery, but can still tell an eagle from a turkey vulture at 1000 feet up.
As someone who routinely walks into walls and doorways when wearing her glasses, I’m a wee bit jealous!
Your Dad always had those Coke bottle glasses since I knew him. If he loss the glasses he could not see, I remember kids stealing them from him in school as a bulling move .
He had surgery last year for cataracts, and now just wears glasses for show. I guess if you’ve worn glasses your whole life then you feel weird without them. He was very excited to finally get a pair of non-prescription sunglasses.
When I was a little girl, my parents had drummed into me that the only acceptable score on a test was 100%. So in grade school, whenever we were lined up for an eye test, I would listen to the kids in front of me in line and memorize the answers they gave when they were looking into the eye test machine. When it was my turn, I’d recite my answers and then ask, “Did I get an A?” and the nurse would say, “It’s just an eye test,” but all I heard was “test.”
My teachers used to ask me, “Can you see the blackboard?” and I’d always say “Yes.” I just couldn’t see what was written on it, but that’s not what they asked.
It wasn’t until I was in fifth grade that I did that thing you’re never supposed to do. A friend asked me to hold her glasses while she did cartwheels or some such thing, and instead, I put them on. Wow! The world was suddenly revealed to me. “I can see all the leaves on the tree!” I handed the girl her glasses and ran home to tell my parents. I couldn’t believe what I’d been missing all my life.
I’m so glad you ended up looking through your friend’s glasses and it all worked out for you!
Sorry about those glasses, but you were still cute!
Aw thanks!
Gulp, my eyesight is actually a little worse than yours …
I keep hoping my midlife farsightedness will start reversing some of the extreme nearsightedness!
Do you ever wonder what it would be like to have natural 20/20 vision?
Jenn, I wonder all the time what it would be like to have naturally perfect vision!