Seeing things clearly

Sep 17, 2018
3 min read

I’ve worn glasses since I was in the third grade.

As you can imagine, I’ve gone through several different pairs of glasses since then. After all, I am 19 years old now, so having the tiny purple frames with little flowers on the sides aren’t really my style anymore.

Since I’ve worn glasses basically my entire life, it’s odd to picture what I would look like without them. I consider them part of my face now, I could never imagine leaving home without them. Seriously, I could never go anywhere without them because I literally cannot see. My worst fear in life is losing my glasses. I shudder just thinking about it. Can you imagine waking up one day and everything is just blurry? It’s a terrifying thought.

The reason I’m so chatty about glasses is because I just started wearing a new pair of frames. Now listen, when I get a new pair of glasses, it’s an event. I’m extremely picky and it takes me a ridiculously long amount of time to make this life-altering decision. I may seem dramatic, but if you pick the wrong glasses for your face, you’re stuck until Mom decides your eyes are bad enough for a new pair.

Needless to say, preparing myself to wear these new glasses and make my debut to the world was quite the process. I do realize the world keeps turning and people move on with their lives while I’m making the decision of whether or not to wear my new glasses. However, the moment they arrived in the mail, I couldn’t stop asking my friends, family, and anyone else in my Snapchat friends list what they thought. I had finally grown accustomed to my big square frames that were a nice shade of deep purple, so this was stressful. Not to mention, I went out on a limb and ordered these new glasses online, and that added even more layers to the stress.

Disclaimer: I ordered these glasses before I returned to USD and they’ve been sitting in my bedroom for the last three weeks.

Yes, it took me that long to bring out the new frames. The sheer amount of stress I felt wearing them to my first class of the day is embarrassing to admit. Honestly, I’m a nobody here so I could wear cat-eye glasses or ski goggles and no one would pay attention. But it’s the principle of the thing.

Of course, a lot of people didn’t notice the change in my eyewear (see “I’m a nobody” in the previous paragraph), but my friends, roommates, and classmates raved about them. I have to say, it was nice to hear that. It’s easy to say you don’t care what people think until you give them something to think about.

Now that I’ve been wearing my hip new glasses for a week, I love them. My last glasses were fine, but these really fit my whole “hipster-with-Crocs” vibe. Not only that, but I’ve noticed I can see significantly better. It’s crazy when you update your prescription and see how incredibly weak your last glasses were.

I think one thing we tend to forget about glasses is that they’re also an accessory. Sure, they help you see and are great if you’re not into putting a slippery, flimsy contact lense in your eyeball (which I am not). But they’re also an excellent tool for expressing yourself and your personal style. I’m all about stepping out of my comfort zone and trying a new trend. I wanted to try out round glasses and I figured why not? If had ended up looking like an 80-year-old female version of Harry Potter, it would be a different story. But sometimes the accessories you end up being the most skeptical of become your favorites

Reflecting on my three-week process of breaking out my new glasses, I’ve come away with a few pieces of knowledge:

If you want a new pair of glasses, go to your eye doctor first, and order them online. There are hundreds of options, and they’re usually reasonably priced, so you can always get more than pair.
Make sure you ask your mom for her opinion. She really does know what looks the best.
Don’t be reluctant to branch out and pick something a little funky or unique. Self-expression is everything.
Maybe don’t wait three weeks to wear a new pair of glasses. I say one week at most, that seems adequate, right?
Treat any pair of glasses like your firstborn child. If you lose them, you better get comfortable with everything being blurry.