Such a smart dog!

Doesn't Lana look smart now? Honestly, if I wasn't already completely in love with her face, I would be right now. By the way, she surprised me by lying so neatly still… for five whole seconds. I'd never even expected this! Fortunately, shooting sports dogs in the past taught me to react quickly. If I wouldn't have had that experience, this photo would never have succeeded. You don't want a dog to knock your glasses off her face with her paws and having the glasses ending up on the floor. And that is really what Lana was trying to do after those five seconds. Fortunately, I took the glasses off her face a fraction earlier. Mission accomplished, photo successful and glasses undamaged.

Hated my glasses with a passion

That's a good thing, because even though I've hated my glasses with a passion in the past, I need the thing. I have also been very ashamed of myself for years for my glasses. Even when I got my contact lenses that took very extreme forms. From the moment I got contact lenses, no one was allowed to see me with my glasses on.

Every morning and evening I had my glasses on, at home, in a private circle. But my parents and sister were the only ones I trusted and allowed to see me with my glasses on. As soon as someone was at the door, or walked in. Then I would tear those glasses off my face and would rather see very badly than keep my glasses on my face. Going out the door with glasses on my nose? LOL! No, no way! That wasn't going to happen. In the first years that I got contact lenses, I had to deal with inflamed eyes a few times, then you should not wear contact lenses of course. And I seriously preferred to take a risk by wearing my lenses anyway, rather than keeping my glasses on.

Where did that shame come from?

I wrote a blog about being bullied all the time a few years back. My glasses were about the biggest reason the bullying started. Now I know that my glasses were the reason for the bullies, but my own character was the reason it didn't stop. If I had dared to bite off, it wouldn't have gotten this far. Unfortunately, that wasn't in it for me ... and that lack of self-confidence, the instilled "you are ugly with your jam pot glasses", has ensured that the shame of my glasses lingered for many years.

And that while I really can't change anything about it. I just need those tools to see what I'm doing. At a very young age it became clear that I have really bad eyesight. I was 9 months old when my parents took me to the ophthalmologist at the hospital for the first time, and 15 months when I got my first glasses. They discovered this because my development showed strange things. Like, for example, when I was crawling around the living room, I really crawled straight at everything. Only to make a sharp turn at the last moment to avoid the object that was standing there. I could also walk very early, but only if they held my hand. As soon as they let go of my hand, I immediately dropped myself to start crawling again. Not to mention that my right eye sometimes looked straight, and sometimes squinted inward. Yes, besides bad eyes, my right eye is also a so-called 'lazy eye'.

As you can see, I've seen quite a few ophthalmologists in my life, and worn out quite a few glasses.

A world literally opened up to me

Even though I was happy that I could finally see clearly, and a world literally opened up to me that way, I also hated my glasses with a passion. Because those glasses were the reason I was bullied so much. When I was 15 years old I was finally allowed contact lenses. And again a world opened up for me. A world of people I met didn't even know I have bad eyesight. Those people didn't know that I wear glasses. And I wanted to prevent them from finding out at all costs.

My glasses were now only for the moments in the morning, immediately after waking up. And in the evening just before going to sleep. It's that I have to wear hard gas permeable contact lenses, but otherwise I would have kept them in at night too. And I've even kept my hard contact lenses in at night so as not to have to admit that I wear glasses.

Memory from Amsterdam

There was a time when I was completely puzzled by my glasses. We had a vacation reunion. That reunion was held in Amsterdam and we would also spend the night in Amsterdam. The holiday organization (it was called “Tentotel”) through whom we had booked the holiday, had rented a room in Paradiso Amsterdam for the reunion, and the sleeping location they had arranged was situated in the Vondelpark. This sleeping location turned out to be a homeless shelter when we arrived. to be. But since we were indeed expected, we went neatly to the room that was assigned to us. There I wanted to take my contact lenses out of my eyes and put on my glasses for 10 minutes. To my surprise, there were no glasses in my bag, even though I was 100% sure that I had packed my glasses in my toiletry bag. My sister @gejami, who I shared my room with, rechecked my entire bag. But she couldn't find glasses either. To which we both thought that the glasses had probably been left at home. No drama we thought. It still bothered me because I was so sure I packed those glasses! We came home late afternoon the next day, and the first thing I did was walk to our dressing table to see if my glasses were in their proper place. And weird but true, NO GLASSES!

So I was right after all. I had indeed packed my glasses, so they were stolen from my bag. Nothing else had disappeared from my bag. But those glasses do. Now you should know, I'm farsighted, so my eyes are corrected with a plus power. And not a little bit! Characteristic of glasses with plus lenses is that these lenses are thicker in the middle than at the edges, and have a slightly magnifying effect. That effect becomes more as the strength is higher, and the lenses are therefore also thicker. Because my eyes are really not that good, the strength can also be called quite high. And certainly then! What did anyone want to do with those glasses? The riddle has never been solved, the glasses have never been found.

Advantage with farsightedness

Fortunately, a small benefit can be found with farsightedness. As you mature, your eyes may improve. That happened to me too. My plus strength decreased somewhat, the glasses could become thinner and the extreme magnifying effect therefore also decreased. Unfortunately, this advantage also stops at a certain age … but hey, it is what it is.

Learning to accept

After all these years with glasses, I have learned to accept who I am. Learned to accept that I need those glasses, or contact lenses, to see well.

And that's why the second picture, I've learned to just give my eyes some love

Contact lenses or glasses, it's my EYELOVE

^{@rubencress, thanks again for the inspiration to start this challenge. If you find this inspirational, have a look at how it all started with the Not So Ordinary Challenge and join in.}

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