When I was 10 or 11 years old, I got my first pair of glasses. Since then, I have been a Casual Glasses Wearer (CGW), only donning specs when at lectures, the movies or while driving.
In truth, though, I should probably wear glasses more often than that. While my left eye is quite good, my right eye is quite bad. In fact, right now, I’m typing with my left eye shut and I can’t even read the laptop screen in front of me.
It’s a good thing I can touch type.
When I’m not wearing glasses, I feel like I’m looking at the world with only my left eye. You really only need one eye to see well but it does feel a bit uncomfortable, like wearing a gauze eye patch over my right eye.
I don’t think of myself as a Full Time Glasses Wearer (FTGW). I’ve never been one. In my mental image of myself, I don’t wear glasses. However, to be a FTGW is not too far a departure from my self-image. I’m very square, not terribly sporty… Perhaps I’m not Asian enough, if you know what I mean.
However, I’ve now come to my senses. I’ve realised that there is nothing actually stopping me from wearing my glasses and feeling comfortable all the time. This is why last week, I decided to become a FTGW.
I wore my glasses for one day, then the next day I was back to my old CGW self. Actually, all that happened was I forgot to wear my glasses. I’ve only remembered my resolution now, a week later. I guess you could say that I’ve fallen off the nerdwagon.
Tomorrow is a new day! If I can climb five storeys every day, I can surely carry the weight of spectacles on the bridge of my nose and the shelves of my ears-tops.
It’s actually been quite difficult to find a photo of me wearing glasses. Here are my frameless pair. I have an uglier pair that I wear more often. You can see a polar bear wearing them here.
These are prescription sunglasses, which are absolutely necessary for driving when the Australian sun is out. They are also very expensive. I’ve lost a pair already.
Some of us take offense at the term “nerdwagon”!
Although, it might make a good name for a band…
Joan, the reason I am not a FTGW (and am a CLW – contact lens wearer – instead) is because when I wear glasses, I can’t see people’s faces in focus without tilting my head back. If you add that head tilt to the amount I already need for being short… well, I may as well be looking at the sky.
One of the barriers to me wearing my glasses is that I didn’t pay extra money to get non-reflective glasses. I get distracted by lights that bounce off my glasses. And of course, I can’t really wear them if someone is taking a photo with a flash!
I found your page to be of interest.
As a teenager I knew that I needed glasses, but hid it from my parents.
Finally in my early thirties went for an eye exam, with the complaint of distance blur after close work. Was given a mild prescription for farsightedness, with instructions to wear them all the time. They were very uncomfortable, and did not solve the problem. For the next few years returned to the same doctor, and the glasses got stronger each year, eventually adding a correction for astigmatism, and then bifocals. None of these prescriptions solved the distance blur problem.
I then changed doctors, and went in with the same complaint, but not wearing my glasses, nor did I tell him that I had been wearing glasses. This doctor determined that I am actually nearsighted, and as he went through the which is better questions, it was obvious that I would be getting significantly needed glasses.
When I picked the glasses up a few days later, I was amazed at how small, but incredibly clear everything appeared. I actually had trouble walking out of his office, but did not want to take the glasses off. Two things that I will never forget about this new prescription, are how I could see peoples faces from across a street, and how I had to push reading material farther away from my eyes to see it clearly.
It has been several years and the prescription is only slightly stronger at -1.25 per eye..
I put them on as soon as I get up, and only take them off to sleep.
I believe the reason that I am so dependent on them, even though they are a relatively weak prescription is that after wearing rather strong plus power glasses, for what was misdiagnosed farsightedness, and then suddenly going into minus power glasses, my eyes became dependent on the large mathematical change.