'Four eyes' and proud of it!

I read a blog in the newspaper recently in which the author describes her feeling at having to wear glasses. Like many people, and I am sure there are plenty of them, she spent most of her youth sneering at people who needed specs (the elderly aside), believing that they were geeks and weaklings who got picked on in the school yard. She also pointed out that film, literary and comic book heroes did not wear glasses (Harry Potter aside) and the ones that did like Clark Kent Peter Parker used it as a part of their disguise to 'hide their awesomeness' as she put it. She then goes on to describe her anguish at the news that she needed to wear glasses. Suddenly, she became one of these 'four-eyed' people. A geek. A weakling. A nerd. To compound the humiliation, she was forced to eat a huge serving of crow for looking down on bespectacled folks in the first place.
Fortunately, she eventually saw the positive side of things, mainly that her once fuzzy vision has been made clear and that it was possible to be a 'cool person' with glasses on (she cites Tina Fey as an example of a 'speccy superhero'). In the end, she embraced her specs and now cannot live without them.

I have to admit, I can totally relate to this story. I, too, wear glasses but this hasn't always been the case. In fact, my eyesight was pretty decent when I was a kid but too many video game and TV sessions later they deteriorated. Unfortunately for me, I also viewed bespectacled folks with snooty disdain, believing that only uncool people wore glasses and that they made the owner look silly. I also viewed them as a bully magnet for kids.
When I eventually noticed that my vision was getting fuzzier I tried to hide it. I was around 14 or 15 at the time and before I knew it, I suddenly had to squint to try and read what the teacher was writing on the board. If that didn't work I slyly peeked at my seatmate's notes and copy off them. As my vision got worse I started sitting right in front of the classroom. I'm pretty sure most of my classmates were thinking 'look at Bernd sitting out front like a goody-goody!' The truth was, I HAD to sit at the front. But in my state of absolute denial even that wasn't enough to get me to admit to myself that I needed glasses.

My problem soon manifested itself in different humiliating ways. People snickered whenever I couldn't read things from a distance. My family members looked at me suspiciously when I failed to see somethinng clearly on the TV screen. I started having to squint a little while playing video games. I kept sitting at the front of the class even though I didn't want to. It got worse and worse. At one particular day in high school, I was sitting in maths class with my friend and we were copying notes off the board. He caught a glimpse of my page and asked me why I had copied a particular formula wrong. I meekly asked him if I could copy it off his page and thankfully he obliged, no questions asked. But seriously, that was a huge blow to my ego. I obviously had a problem but I was too damn stubborn to admit it.

Finally, shortly before I turned 17 my mother forced me to get my eyes checked. She had began to notice my increasing inability to see things from afar and understandably, she was getting worried. I went to the optometrist, took the exam and my apparently-not-so-secret shame was exposed: I was short-sighted and needed glasses. Right at that moment I heard a voice inside my head shout 'NOOOOOOOO!!!!' I couldn't believe it! I was already a geeky kid to begin with but with these glasses I was stamping that label on my forehead in block letters. When I tried my new glasses on the only thing I saw was a four-eyed nerd begging to be mocked and laughed at for the rest of his life.

But, that was a long time ago. Just like the author of that blog I eventually came to embrace the glasses. Reading things from a distance is no longer a problem, watching TV and reading off the computer is no longer a frustrating experience and I actually think I look ok with them on (although taking pictures can still be a problem since the lens tends to form a glare). Besides, not all frames make the owner look like a total dork. There are trendy frames out there that can make the owner look cool and hip.
I'm sure there are some folks out there who look at me and think 'oh, there goes another four-eyed geek!' but to them I respectfully say, 'four eyes and PROUD OF IT, DUDE!!!!!'