I needed glasses the whole time

Over the holidays Alex had said to me a couple times that I needed glasses when she saw me squinting. I confidently said to her “last time my eyes were checked I had better than 20/20 vision” which is entirely true. The issue is that my last eye test was over 15 years ago and I have spent a lot of screen time since.

We were at a holiday party and there was a screen that I would have normally been able to read and I immediately knew that she was right, I needed glasses.

Once I had realized that I needed glasses all I could notice in every task that I did was how badly I needed them. Alex got so annoyed because after anything that I would do I would say “Wow, writing in my journal has really shown me how badly I need glasses", “wow, watching the hockey game has really shown me how badly I need glasses". It’s funny that I can go on with my life and not notice that I may need glasses, but once I’m made aware it’s the only thing that I do notice.

However, this quickly faded as I was going through the process of waiting for my glasses to arrive. I almost convinced myself I didn’t need them in that time. When I went to pick up the glasses they asked me to put them on and I felt like it barely made a difference. They asked me to read a sign across the room and I said ya I can see that, as if I would always have been able to see that sign, then I took the glasses off… It was a blur.

It’s funny how stubborn I can be. Even when I’m looking at a solution I have this script in my head that tells me I’ve always been able to see that well. Just a couple weeks prior everything I did told me that I needed glasses, but so quickly I conditioned myself to think that I didn’t. Sometimes it takes someone to remove the glasses for you to appreciate what they are doing for you.

I write this as a reminder to myself. To appreciate and be grateful for the amazing people and opportunities I have in my life. I think like everyone we tend to take these things for granted. I hope that I can learn to appreciate them more without anything needed to be removed.