Summary: I don’t know how long my vision has been bad. I’m sure it’s been bad pretty much all of my life, but I was in the 6th grade when my teacher contacted my parents to tell them that I should have my eyes tested. I’ll never forget my first eye exam. My dad took me to an eye doctor in the city. We went back to the office area and they blew air into my eyes. I had no idea at the time what glaucoma was or why they would test for it. They also dilated my pupils. <br> <br> I then went into a room and sat in a big chair with strange contraptions all around it. The doctor put various lenses in front of my eyes and eventually arrived at the obvious conclusion: I had very poor eyesight. I was very nearsighted and had astigmatism in both eyes. I then got to hang out with my dad for the rest of the day. It was terrible. No, really, it was. They had dilated my eyes and my dad had to drive around and pick up supplies for a carpet laying job he was working on. Even though the doctor had given me a pair of the dorkiest looking sunglasses ever known to man, they were not blocking enough of the sun. It was hard for me to see and I had a really bad headache.<br> <br> My glasses came in a few days later and I was amazed. If you wear glasses then you’ve probably had a similar experience. I did not know what I’d been missing. What had been a green carpet in front of our house was now revealed to be individual blades of grass. I could see each leaf on the trees around our house and I no longer had to sit 3 feed from the TV to understand what was happening. It was truly amazing. Sometimes I would just stare at stuff and be amazing by all the details that were new to me. Read More...
