I remember the exact day when I discovered I needed glasses.
I was at a casino (John Ascuaga’s Nugget, to be exact) eating in the little cafe with my parents one afternoon and I was (pretend) playing Keno, the old-people game with all of the numbers on the screen that you guess will light up.
I was squinting to see the numbers, as I thought everyone had to do since the board was so far away, when my dad said, “Can you not see the numbers?”
“I can see them,” I replied while squinting.
“Don’t squint and read me the numbers that are lit up right now.”
“I can’t. You can???”
To test my vision even further, my dad asked me how many stoplights I could see down the road on main street while driving home.
“Uhhhh,…I can almost see that one” referring to the one right in front of us as we drove under it.
Nonetheless, I had an eye appointment the next week and sure enough, I needed glasses. I remember squinting to see things a lot, but I thought everyone had to do that in order to see things far away. I almost thought people had good memories and could just remember what they saw when viewing whatever it was close up. I also think that as I got older I was embarrassed that I couldn’t see very well. I remember trying to memorize the eye chart when I first walked in to the doctor’s office. Somehow, I scraped by all of those years, until that very day in the casino when I was ten.
So when I walked out of the eye doctor that first day with my new pair of glasses, I was in absolute shock as to what I saw. Trees actually had individual leaves that could be seen from a distance. I could actually see INDIVIDUAL LEAVES. This was mind blowing to me. And I could actually see the sagebrush on the mountains, the birds flying in the sky and could read the signs on stores. No, I could SEE the stores.
I could count five stoplights down the road.
And suddenly, I saw the world. And it was beautiful.
My vision has progressively gotten worse over the years. In fact, I am now legally blind. You know the big letter “E” on the eye chart int he doctor’s office?
I can’t see it.
Luckily, contacts don’t bother my eyes at all and for those I am incredibly thankful. But, because of all of this I am paranoid about my own children’s vision and want to make sure they are always able to see the beautiful place in which we live.
Gwyneth attended her first eye appointment at 18 months old and I am proud to report that so far, all is a-okay with her vision.
Thank goodness.
Here’s to being thankful for sight and healthy eyes!
