Milly Henry
It’s annoying that one day I had good eyesight and then all of a sudden I didn’t. Of course, it’s not my choice to wear my “specs” but it is just a sort of burden that I must deal with. I’m sure that as I get older I’ll realise that my glasses weren’t as I thought they were…or will I? I suppose they do help me, however I’m not so sure whether the pros outweigh the cons or not.
In my twelve years on this planet, I’ve had some whopping pairs of glasses. My first two pairs were Mr Men and Little Miss, in fact! I mean who doesn’t love Mr. Bump and Little Miss Chatterbox? But, how embarrassing! In Primary Five, I wore pink and purple glasses. After staring at my Primary Five school picture, I exclaimed “pink glasses what was I thinking?” only to turn around, glance in the mirror and realise my current glasses are pink. Schools are name calling machines, I was lucky to escape Primary School with only a few “specky’s”.
Then, there’s the few times I have broken or lost my glasses and I have had to go through the pain and struggle of life without them. It feels strange: similar to a non “specky” person losing a nose or rather two eyes.
Nowadays NHS free glasses are far better than they were in the 70’s and 80’s. Then, you could only have one style- either pink or blue- and if you really had to wear them everyone knew they were free. Now, though, there is plenty to choose from and a lot of them are really nice. Recently, the “Geek-Chic” trend has come about and thankfully the NHS accommodate those of us who do not wish to fall under the category of “unfashionable”.
However, if you don’t fancy glasses you can always wear contacts but that’s only if you are unaffected by the horrid experience of touching your eyeball *Shiver*. The idea is the same but you don’t notice them, so I guess that’s a bonus.
“Specky” people even have their own stereotype! There is an assumption that every person whose eyes are not completely “up to scratch” is intelligent. Personally, I think that it’s completely absurd that whether or not somebody’s eyes are fully intact determines their level of intellect.
And then there is the dreaded trip to the Opticians. Going to the Opticians is awfully difficult. First of all, there is the machine that takes a picture of your eye, which restricts your chin and the rest of your face into an uncomfortable position and you’ve got to try with all your might not blink, after which the behinds of your eyeball flashes up in your vision- which, I must say, is traumatic. Then, there’s the flashlight, the letters on a screen of all different sizes and finally, the sentences which you must read aloud and attempt not to stutter whilst doing. After all of that, there’s the stressful process of picking which glasses suit you and which shape makes your head look proportional.
Specs have their good sides and their bad but it’s true that their sole purpose is to help us. However, I will never understand why people without them feel the need to buy and wear fake ones. I suppose that nowadays they are viewed as just another fashion accessory. I often think of them as being a burden on me but being “specky” is just a part of me now and without my glasses I don’t feel complete. As I always say, “four eyes are better than just two!”
