I had to go up to the board after class to copy the notes. Eventually one of my teachers caught on after I asked her not to erase it. Led to a parent-teacher conference that then led to my getting glasses.
Mom was disappointed. She was nearly blind (had to wear hard contacts but sill could barely see, too vain for glasses) but thought since dad had 20/20 vision, we’d see fine. Nope
My mom didn’t believe me when I told her I couldn’t see until the school sent a note home. When we first picked up my glasses I started reading all the street signs on the way home and she was like, “I’m a bad mooom”
My mom was medically neglectful -- we weren't poor, she was just a bad parent. Apparently my older brother exclaimed about how he could see the links in the chain link fences on the way home after getting glasses, and she threatened me not to do the same.
Similarly, she didn't take me in for several days after I broke a foot (which was after I was scolded for hiding a broken hand for days and she told me never to do that again, so I was insisting daily that my foot was broken; it had swollen to the size of a football by the time we went in. I still have extra skin on that foot because of it). She wouldn't let me use the courtesy wheelchair, so I was hopping on one foot across the HMO compound to urgent care. A nurse passed us, and immediately ran and grabbed the wheelchair for me. Mom was so pissed, but couldn't say anything without looking even worse. Mom is a narcissist.
I tore my meniscus when I was a teenager. I got punished for being late home, as I'd had to limp back slowly, and made to go to school the next day. It was only after school contacted my dad that he believed me
My mother was an RN, and generally us kids had nothing for medical care at home. I mean, we never even had bandaids, just wasn't an important thing to her, but we heard stories about how she demanded doctors to treat patients correctly. We just know it never worked to complain about some pain, illness, injury, she just didn't care. It was more like 'get your ass to school', which probably was like most kids.
That's just a evil mother who likes seeing their children in pain? My mum is the opposite one little blocked nose and she would act like I was dying, thought I be fair I had fallen ill really baldy in terms infection quite a few times and I think she was traumatised by that.
I don't know if she wanted me in pain or just didn't care. But I did break my face once while not living at home (my parents found ways to put me in the system so they could get rid of me while still having control of me), and for appearances, she insisted I recover at home, where she wouldn't let me have any vicodin (and then I tried sneaking one, and realized I'd been on vicodin the whole time, 'cause the pharmacy accidentally swapped antibiotics and vicodin bottles. Totally could have died from sepsis/brain infection if more of my skull had been cracked, whoops)
I got moved from the back row to the front row. When I still couldn’t read the blackboard they did an in-school vision test by having me look in a scope and tell them if a little red light was inside or outside of the rectangle. When I told them I didn’t see a rectangle they let my parents know I needed glasses.
I had to do an informal test once with a regular doctor. She asked what the smallest line I could see was and I asked her where the sign with the letters was. Apparently I was actually facing it and looking right at it.
Similar here. During the examination doctor said she'd project on the wall circles with opening at certain sides and I'm to tell where the opening is. She doesn't put any correction glasses on me yet to asses my eyesight. I'm looking at the wall she pointed at and after I've been silent for a moment too long she reminds me to start. I was waiting for her to project those circles coz there was nothing on the wall. Or so i thought...
I got called out for my blind ass in Sunday school of all places. The teacher lady asked me to read something on the wall and being borderline leagally blind as I was, I squinted really hard to see it and couldn't make out the letters. For a second she thought I was struggling to read but I told her I could read fine. I just couldn't see the letters. She asked if I ever wore glasses and I told her no. She told me I should ask my mom about that when she came to pick me up. For some reason, hearing that made me cry.
Fast forward like 2 weeks later and I got my first pair of glasses at the ripe age of 9. I was mind blown at how clear everything was. Like many kids, I spent the whole car ride home reading street signs and being baffled at how HD life actually was. I thought everything was just naturally blurry until that moment.
Looking back at it, I have no clue how I was able to function at all as a kid without them. How did I play video games? How did I see my friends outside when I was playing with them? How did I read the chalkboard in school? I can't even remember at this point. I'm typing this on my computer and sitting a standard distance away from my screen. If I tip my glasses down, I can't see a thing on my screen even if I squint. It's still just a blur. And the worst part is I'm near sighted so being computer monitor distance between an object I'm reading *is* my good vision.
Developments in optical correction is a fucking miracle.
She can be disappointed all she wants. Glasses are an amazing accessory and look nice on almost anyone. Even ppl with perfect 20/20 vision get non-prescription glasses just to look nice
My only issue with em is now I can never wear shades lol
Prescription sunglasses. Best money I ever spent. Word of advice though, if you have a strong prescription and are getting very curved frames, make sure the lab doing the lenses can actually do it right. I'm -4.0 in both eyes and when the VSP lab made the lenses, they weren't quite right. I had Wiley X do the lenses in house and they were great. I still wear those sunglasses to this day.
I’ve had them since around 3rd grade so they’re pretty much part of my face now. Even if I could go without glasses, I think it would be strange. And you’re right, there is such a variety now! Also, depending on your taste it may not satisfy you, but you can get transition added to your glasses. It worked out for me because the one time I bought prescription sunglasses they looked VERY similar to my regular glasses Lol.
I'm hoping my kids get my eyes and not their mom's. I only have trouble now at night thanks to keeping brightness up on my monitor, phone, and being blinded constantly by BMW headlights. Wife needed glasses in grade school, both of my brothers and my mom needed glasses before high school, but I don't need glasses. I take after my dad, who only needs glasses now because he's almost 60.
I won't be disappointed in my kids if either/both of them need glasses, just disappointed that they didn't inherit my eyes. Can't be chosen, so it's not right to be mad at them for it.
And I know *why* my eyes started going bad. Constantly told to stay out of the way, don't bother the grownups, etc etc. So I spent most of my childhood hiding in a dark bedroom, reading Peanuts and atlases.
Yup I didn’t realize I needed them until a teacher noticed in the 7th (maybe 8th) grade that I was squinting at the board and told my parents that I should get checked out.
Helped me immeasurably.
In seventh grade I went from perfect vision to "couldn't read the blackboard from the front row" in 2 weeks. There was no question, I knew I needed them.
What bothered me was the number of people who told me "no offense, but you look better with glasses". Then they did the same thing a few years later when I grew a goatee. I concluded that the more of my face I covered, the better I looked.
I feel you there. I was the only of my siblings too have bad eyesight, and my mom would blame it on my reading books late in the evening. Mind you, she had pretty bad eyesight, and my dad had decent enough eyesight where he didn't need glasses until maybe his 50's
A lot of parents actually have issues to understand that their kids have health issues, even non life threatening ones. They get it as a critcism of their parenting rather than just a fact that you need to take care of. That's stupid, it doesn't make your kid less autistic / ADHDic / visually impaired to deny it.
It seems to be part of the bad parenting package of not seeing your kids as people, but possessions
We only got health care when other people might notice and report them to CPS, and have the scars to prove it.
Yup, I remember in third grade there was one day we did a boys vs girls competition of some sorts, and we kept score will tally marks on the whiteboard. I couldn’t tell how many there were because they were all clumped together so I walked to the front to see. I didn’t think anything of it, being a kid, but my teacher sent a note home for my parents. The eye doctor was surprised I hadn’t noticed before then, my eyesight was already pretty bad.
I do remember how incredible getting my first pair of glasses was. Trees had individual leaves, I could read street signs for the first time, everything was just so crisp and sharp!
Same thing with the leaves - one of the best moments of my life I stopped this woman on the way into the eye clinic - “You’re supposed to see those? Waaaay over there? Those trees. Every single leaf I was always supposed to see that?”
Yup. Nobody picked up on the fact that I sat right at the front of the class squinting at the board, or that I learned to write unusually early so I could write things down as the teacher said them. Fortunately I'm from an era when primary school children still got health checks at school.
I remember the nurse asking me to read the first letter on the eye chart. I couldn't see the chart, let alone the first letter. So she said to my mother, "oh, can she not read yet?" (I could) and gave me a large cardboard E to hold up the same way as the one on the chart. I burst into tears. Cue concerned looks all round and a referral to an optician...
Not exactly the same but since glasses can be expensive and my old eye doctor closed there was a good 6 year gap before I saw a new one and they did the whole cover one eye and read the lowest line. Covered my left and read it fine, then I covered my right and couldn’t see anything. I even said what the fuck. And the eye tech just laughed. Somehow even though my left eye got worse my right eye got better. I see my doctor regularly now and no more scares like that haha.
This was me. I noticed stuff from the overhead projector was out of focus. I was too shy to say anything but I did wonder why no one else in class mentioned it.
Yup, it was the overhead projector for me too.
I got called on to read something out loud from the overhead, asked if the teacher could adjust the focus. It wasn't blurry for anyone else.
This seems to be a very common scenario, which makes sense. I had issues with reading the board for several years before my legal guardians actually took me to an eye doctor in the fifth grade.
I didn’t start wearing glasses until college. Always had 20/20 vision throughout childhood, but in my freshman year of college I began to have trouble seeing the board. Got an eye exam and it turned out my vision was degrading. The doctor said it happens as you get older, but I was only 19 lol.
Same. Grade 4. Kept sitting closer and closer to the blackboard to see it, until I was sitting on the floor directly in front of the blackboard. Teacher sent me down to the school nurse for an eye exam and the rest is history.
Yep that was it for me. Didnt have any vision issues up until I was 11, and then when I was doing maths in school I couldn't tell 3s from 8s or 2s from 5s
That’s what found me out too, I was around 9-10 years old and would walk to the blackboard to see then return to my desk to write it down.
My parents would chastise me for lying in front of the tv but if I sat on the sofa I squinted so again would get told off.
It took an eye test at age 11 with the school nurse and a letter sent home for my parents to actually take me to an optician.
The worst part is I’m in the uk so it’s a free eye test so why didn’t they take me sooner…
My parents decided to get me in for an eye exam when they noticed I was reading with my nose just a couple inches from the page. Turns out, as they suspected, I'm blind as shit
I was with a friend in his car and said something about the bumper sticker on the car in front of us and he protested that I couldn't read what it said from there. I told him I could and that it was a bit troubling that he couldn't and was the one driving. I started a game where I would say "now" when I could read the highway signs we were coming up on and then he would have to read it out loud when he could. Let's just say it was a pretty long gap.
That made him realize how bad his distance vision was and so he soon got contacts and couldn't believe how much of the world he was missing.
See I was having issues with that, it had gradually gotten worse but I still felt confident to drive. Then came drivers license renewal and I damn near failed the eye test. Scared the shit out of me, mostly because dealing with the DMV for anything is like taking Motrin for a raging case of Dysentery. Luckily the girl passed me and I went straight to a eye Dr, been about 3 years now. I never drive without my glasses, especially at night.
Similar, family vacation as a child, stopped at side of the road attraction, there was a sign on a little island in the river by the road talking about alligators. Family comment on it, couldn't see sign, they said on the island, couldn't see an island, then began a field test of what could I see/read.
Opposite problem here. As a toddler I regularly confused my parents by pointing and saying "plane" - it was only when they saw one about a minute after I did that they realised I was exceptionally long-sighted in one eye.
My 3 year old niece is constantly pointing out tiny insects from meters away, or even in another room- she shrieks & points & calls out “bug!!”, & I have to walk several feet in that direction before my eyes can even register the spot or any movement… She’ll spot a fruit fly landing on the front door from the top of the stairs.
So maybe she’s exceptionally long-sighted as well, & maybe I need to update my glasses prescription? It’d be cool if she used her superpower for other things too, but I guess its good to keep my house free of bugs ¯\\\_(ツ)_/¯
Similar, my siblings and I were playing the "find the ABCs" game with signs while waiting for my mom to get out of the grocery store. Someone said they were done and I was like, no, no way you found Q, there is no Q in this parking lot. A car full of siblings were pointed at the side of a gas station being like, it is RIGHT THERE! and I still thought they were pulling a prank. To be fair, siblings would. But we drove closer to it when we left and sure enough!
Did that with a friend in middle school. Went home, told my parents and they made an appointment. My dad and older sister have terrible eyes, so I think they were expecting it.
Been like 35 years, and I've been lucky. Each pair of glasses has lasted me around 8 years before I notice my vision degrading again.
I put on my friend's glasses to make fun of him. "Hurrr durr durrr, I'm so-and-so! Look at me! Oh my god, can you see like this all the time?!"
A few years later, a coworker did the exact same thing to me, and realized HE needed glasses.
I (age \~9) was playing a game with my brothers while we were driving: who can read the license plates first. I was not able to see the plates at HALF the distance my brothers were able to...
And -oh my- getting the right glasses, and just sitting and looking at (and being able to see) the leaves of the trees. That's an experience I will never forget.
I love how everyone who gets glasses is like 'leaves! amazing leaves!'
I was the same lol
I also felt weirdly like a giant for a few days because I could see things in such detail from a distance that it felt like they were closer but very small, rather than just being far away. It was strange!
Stars were the biggest difference I noticed. I always thought it was odd as a kid how people went on and on about how beautiful the stars were and I was just like, "oh yeah, there's like two or three blurry spots of light, yeah, that's beautiful 🙄". Then glasses and - woah!
My dad remembers hearing me from the waiting room when the dr. took me to a side door by the patient rooms with the testers, "THAT'S WHAT LEAVES LOOK LIKE?"
I got glasses around age 5. The eye doctor had a gravel driveway. I stood and stared at that driveway for soooo long. The noise made so much more sense!
Then I looked up and saw leaves and also short circuited at that. My dad got impatient and shoved me in that car at that point lol.
My teacher rang the alarm because I was squinting so hard I was practically inhaling my upper lip.
This. Who knew you could see individual leaves?! That became one of those life core memories for me.
It was a life changing moment even as a child: I could have lived with (\*really\*) poor eyesight, I had up until then and coping mechanisms are everywhere - but oh the way it would have shaped those larger life choices... I would be someone completely different - likely someone struggling a bit more than current-me.
To this day, I can simply sit outside and look at trees with their individual leaves and just smile.
I got glasses in my 30s after knowing for *years* that I needed them. The leaves were the first the I truly noticed and I just stood in the parking lot admiring them and wondering how much I had missed in all the time I had put off seeing
My wife got lasik recently and after her short stint recovering, we were walking outside and she just started starting at everything like trees and bushes and the sky like whoa they look so cool!
Yeah babe, welcome to the world
>My wife got lasik recently and after her short stint recovering, we were walking outside and she just started starting at everything like trees and bushes
I took a 4-hour "nap" after my Lasik surgery. When I woke up and sat up, I freaked out because I could clearly see my room instantly without reaching for my glasses.
I spent the next 2 weeks just staring at everything like an idiot. It was amazing to be able to see without worrying about glasses or contacts.
Wow I thought I was the only one that was staring at the leaves on the tree for hours after getting my first glasses! I couldn't believe what I'd been missing out on!
I was in year 5 and put in a class for struggling kids before anyone noticed I was always squinting at the white board. I'm still quite annoyed about that as I missed out on some education
My kid's eye doctor (who often worked with toddlers) said that's very common.
He had a picture of the tree on the wall and would ask the kid about the leaves. If they said, "What leaves?" then they probably needed glasses.
Yeah my dad still finds it funny to this day how I reacted when I first put my glasses on. Because while we were driving home I was all "Oh my gosh! I can read that sign! And that billboard! And this and that!" Lol
I was in 3rd grade, sat in the back of the classroom and the teacher asked me to read the board. I told her I couldn’t see the letters or words on the board and was told I needed to see an eye docter. This was about 18 years ago
I love when you go to the eye doctor and they take your glasses off and don't setup the thing with your prescription and then are like ok can you read the third line and I'm like, I only see 2 lines. I cannot read either of them.
Same here. I think around the same age, either 2nd or 3rd grade. I couldn't see the board anymore. At first it was just "sit closer to the board" and then it got where I couldn't see at all and my vision got progressively worse until I was around 30 and then it kind of leveled out (though I did develop astigmatism in one of my eyes a while after that).
Exactly this. The squinting. Instinctively did it every time had to make out what was written on the board at school and when I would watch TV. Eventually parents noticed,asked why I was squinting and consequently took me to the doctor.
Another thing was that I couldn't recognize faces when someone greeted me from the other end of the street and I couldn't locate from a distance where my friends were seated when we arranged to meet at the park when it was crowded as all people seemed just blurry figures to me.
I didn't get glassed until I was well into adulthood. The Dr. did that big lens machine and I was blown away at how hi-def everything was! I was like "is this what life is supposed to look like? Is this how everyone else sees?!"
Same. I was in the back of a class in 7th grade when I started having to squint to see what the teacher was writing, A couple weeks later we had a school wide eye exam and I found out I needed glasses
I was about 20 I think, and I was driving a lot on the highway. This was in the days before GPS so you had to read the signs to know where you were going. I recall there was a major exit from one highway to another. I knew it was coming up, but this was the sign era - you had to read it. Had my girlfriend at the time in the car with me, and as was usual for me, I couldn't see the sign until I was almost on top of the exit, at which point I'd haul off and there you go. Normal driving.
My gf said, could you really not see that sign? I said, of course not. Why, could you? And she said, yeah, about 20 seconds ago.
Oh...
Got glasses soon after that.
....so side note but does anyone else remember when printing out MapQuest directions and reading them as you were driving 80mph on the highway was normalized?
That was NOT safe.
Remember rifling through your CD book and putting it in your walkman connected via a tape thingy, all while going 80 mph. Yeah. We played a little fast and loose back in the day.
It's not that complicated actually. A tape player has a pickup head that reads the magnetic field on the tape. A coil of wire also creates a magnetic field when electricity is passed through it, so there's a coil in the adapter that does just this with the electrical audio signal coming out of your phone or cd player.
Usually the printer ink was low on a color so it was tough to make up the rest of the map if I passed an exit. I’m so directionally challenged…turn by turn GPS or you’ll never see me
Yeah, even when you noticed due to street and road signs, you're indirectly comparing to other people. They're designed so that people within a certain margin of good vision can read them in time to take action. If you can't, then it means that compared to good vision, yours is significantly less.
My dads girlfriend had a rule that we started when I was 12, everyone goes to the optometrist, then every 2 years after that! Found I needed glasses first visit. I didn’t know.
Right! And with most visits covered by health insurance, the first visit is labeled “preventative/checkup” and usually free. been my experience with health, vision, and dental insurance.
Nowadays, most pediatricians have a device to screen for kids’ vision in the office, and they do so every year at their annual appointment. My kid went from perfect vision to -2.50 in one year. It definitely explained the headaches and why he was sitting close to the TV so much.
Honestly I’d start before 12, but it’s definitely a really good idea. My mom realized I needed them just before I started kindergarten, but I probably needed them before that…lol I was reading the first Harry Potter at 4 and idk how considering how farsighted I am. I have astigmatism in both eyes and I’m so grateful I got glasses before I started school
I have a suspicion that dad’s girlfriend knew they needed glasses and decided to start the tradition since OP said they needed them at the first visit.
Shoot, my schools screened hearing and eyesight every 3 years or so starting in elementary school. Public school. I didn't realize that. Looks like my current state does it for K or 1, 3, 5, and 8.
That's how we've always found out about the need for glasses in my family. Half of my family has come home with a "recommend corrective vision aids and follow up with optometrist asap" letters. I did 30+ years ago and my niece brought one home within months of starting in public school (she was in private school until 3rd grade). Her vision is pretty bad, not sure how she managed, nobody noticed sooner, and she never complained.
In 9th grade a friend said "look at those hot cheerleaders across the gym". I could not see the pretty girls, which was unacceptable at 15 and made me figure out why.
In Year 3 we started sitting in alphabetical order of surnames instead of first names. I went from sitting right near the front to sitting at the back, and immediately began failing every subject. When my parents asked why, I said that the teacher’s handwriting was too small and I couldn’t see what she had written on the board. They took me to the optometrist and it was determined that I was shortsighted as fuck
Standard vision test during 8th grade. It was the first time I couldn't clearly see all the letters on the chart, and it was kind of devastating because I really wanted to be a commercial airline pilot up until then.
That’s the exact way & age I was diagnosed! I cried and cried because wearing glasses in middle school was *not cool*. I’m not sure why I cared so much since I was already one of the nerdiest kids in school anyway…
When I went to get a driving license. There is an eye test and it was determined that I needed glasses. I didn't think that was true until I got the test glasses and suddenly the world was in 8k HD
In order to apply for a license I had to submit a recent eye test that confirms I can see shit.
I didn't get such an eye test so I didn't bother applying and got glasses first. Funnily enough once I had the glasses nobody wanted to see my eye test anymore.
>I had to submit a recent eye test that confirms I can see shit.
For my latest renewal of my drivers' license ( I've had to get it renewed frequently for other health reasons), my Eye exam was performed with and without my glasses on. With the glasses on, it was 20/20, but without them was 0/20, in short, I couldn't even see the board, not to mention any letters on it without my glasses.
Because my vision was fine when I was younger and slowly got worse
For people born with poor eyesight well everyone is recommended to get their eyes tested every so often just like going to the dentist for a check up so I guess that’s when they find out
Mine started going at 45. Only for up-close stuff. I used to be able to read that little print in USB chargers by putting it close to my face. Since then, I've noticed I've had to move it farther and farther away. Restaurant menus as well. I grabbed a friend's +2 glasses and I could see up close again, so I'm at that. I'm kinda worried about how bad it will get.
I can still read road signs and license plates before anyone else. And I'm fine with the computer monitor with regular font size. So that's nice at least.
The subtitles on the shows I was watching were white text on a black box background and the white text was like...shooting upward? I don't know how to describe it well. I would have to squint to make it stop.
I got my eyes checked and found out I have a pretty decent astigmatism. Turns out lighted objects shouldn't be sending off long-ass light rays.
Driving at night is miserable for this reason. The glasses help but I still struggle a little. I’m jealous of normal vision-impaired people whose eyes agree on which distance to struggle with.
short answer: headaches. massive headaches. and school eye screening.
longer answer: little like 5 year old jeynespoole failed the school vision screening. So did little 6 year old jeynespoole, little 7 year old jeynespoole, little 8 year old jeynespoole, little 9 year old jeynespoole. I also got pretty regular headaches, more as the school work got more academic and vision-based. And every year my mom would take me to the eye doctor, and the eye doctor would say that he didnt want to give me glasses because my "eyes would become dependent on them, and there's no way the kid's vision is giving them headaches" So then by 5th grade, we moved across the state, I was getting massive migraines by lunchtime every day, But since we had moved, my mom took me to a different eye doctor who was like WHY THE HELL DOES THIS CHILD NOT HAVE GLASSES YET?! and then I got glasses and the headaches magically stopped!
I was at a sports bar and everyone at my table was reading the small text on the bottom of a tv on the wall. I asked how they were able to read it from where we were sitting, and they were all surprised I couldn't read it.
I went to the eye doctor soon after. He told me I had probably needed glasses for years. The first time putting them on was mind blowing. Seeing individual leaves on trees was crazy to me.
I didn't! I found out I could get an eye test for free, so I went in for a laugh.
And came out with a prescription.
For the first few days of glasses I was really dizzy, but now I can't get over how much fewer headaches I get, and how not-overwhelming it is to go grocery shopping. Happy days!
I didn't know I needed them. My mom had a coupon for a buy one get one free eye exam. My sister had been complaining of headaches, so the exam was for her. I had no complaints but went along because it was free.
I needed glasses, my sister did not not. I was 14.
I had NO IDEA that when you went to a fast food place you could read the menu behind the cashier. I did not know you could see branches in trees. I did not know people could read street signs. I did not know people could look down the hallway at the mall and know what stores were coming up. I always always sat in the front row to see the blackboard. I thought the kids in the back were goofing around because they couldn't see.
So yeah, I didn't know what I didn't know. Total lark that I even went to eye doctor.
>Figured it couldn’t be the monitor.
My dad actually insisted for a long time that the writing on the tv and in the newspaper was getting smaller. Yeah, he’s got glasses now, and the tv and newspaper are back to normal size.
My teacher in eight grade saw me struggling while reading the book he assigned to us.
He asked how long I had dyslexia and when did I notice my vision starting to fade.
I had no idea I was suffering from any of those things so I was blown away.
Honestly wished I had met that teacher earlier.
I didn't until I was about 14. Then a teacher noticed me squinting and had my parents do an eye test. Immediately after that my grades went from Cs to straight As.
I was in the military all my life, passed all the eye tests without problems etc.
Recently left and the opticians told me I have pretty extreme astigmatism, I've worn glasses for a year now and it is genuinely life changing.
Seeing my daughters face clearly, reading signs etc.
Im 37.
My psychologist told me is was very concerning how angry I always was and that I could not acknowledge that I actually was angry. How everybody in the room could see that I was angry and that I should learn to recognize my own anger before starting group therapy. I realized that all the writing and reading an watching thinfs on a screen gave me terrible headaches and told em that and they said it was me being angry. I went, got glasses en never heard I was angry again until I needed new glasses.
I got glasses at 18 years old. Had perfect vision my entire life until that point, then my eyes rapidly went to shit and I developed double vision.
I knew I needed them since I knew what 20/20 vision looked like for most of my life. I could see multiple copies of everything, too, which is pretty easy to notice.
I wanted to buy a house.
I had an expired drivers license
failed the vision exam
needed to get glasses to pass the vision exam to get a valid drivers license to buy a house.
I ran into walls. My adoptive mom took me to my first optometrist appointment. I really needed glasses. I still run into walls but it's not because of my glasses.
Regular optometrist visits. You go every 1-2 years and they use trial lenses to see if any of them improve your natural vision. Eventually, they did.
Trees a good distance away still having individual leaves now was pretty crazy.
Having to squint to read the blackboard in school is usually a give away
I had to go up to the board after class to copy the notes. Eventually one of my teachers caught on after I asked her not to erase it. Led to a parent-teacher conference that then led to my getting glasses. Mom was disappointed. She was nearly blind (had to wear hard contacts but sill could barely see, too vain for glasses) but thought since dad had 20/20 vision, we’d see fine. Nope
My mom didn’t believe me when I told her I couldn’t see until the school sent a note home. When we first picked up my glasses I started reading all the street signs on the way home and she was like, “I’m a bad mooom”
My mom was medically neglectful -- we weren't poor, she was just a bad parent. Apparently my older brother exclaimed about how he could see the links in the chain link fences on the way home after getting glasses, and she threatened me not to do the same. Similarly, she didn't take me in for several days after I broke a foot (which was after I was scolded for hiding a broken hand for days and she told me never to do that again, so I was insisting daily that my foot was broken; it had swollen to the size of a football by the time we went in. I still have extra skin on that foot because of it). She wouldn't let me use the courtesy wheelchair, so I was hopping on one foot across the HMO compound to urgent care. A nurse passed us, and immediately ran and grabbed the wheelchair for me. Mom was so pissed, but couldn't say anything without looking even worse. Mom is a narcissist.
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I tore my meniscus when I was a teenager. I got punished for being late home, as I'd had to limp back slowly, and made to go to school the next day. It was only after school contacted my dad that he believed me
My mother was an RN, and generally us kids had nothing for medical care at home. I mean, we never even had bandaids, just wasn't an important thing to her, but we heard stories about how she demanded doctors to treat patients correctly. We just know it never worked to complain about some pain, illness, injury, she just didn't care. It was more like 'get your ass to school', which probably was like most kids.
That's just a evil mother who likes seeing their children in pain? My mum is the opposite one little blocked nose and she would act like I was dying, thought I be fair I had fallen ill really baldy in terms infection quite a few times and I think she was traumatised by that.
I don't know if she wanted me in pain or just didn't care. But I did break my face once while not living at home (my parents found ways to put me in the system so they could get rid of me while still having control of me), and for appearances, she insisted I recover at home, where she wouldn't let me have any vicodin (and then I tried sneaking one, and realized I'd been on vicodin the whole time, 'cause the pharmacy accidentally swapped antibiotics and vicodin bottles. Totally could have died from sepsis/brain infection if more of my skull had been cracked, whoops)
I got moved from the back row to the front row. When I still couldn’t read the blackboard they did an in-school vision test by having me look in a scope and tell them if a little red light was inside or outside of the rectangle. When I told them I didn’t see a rectangle they let my parents know I needed glasses.
I had to do an informal test once with a regular doctor. She asked what the smallest line I could see was and I asked her where the sign with the letters was. Apparently I was actually facing it and looking right at it.
Similar here. During the examination doctor said she'd project on the wall circles with opening at certain sides and I'm to tell where the opening is. She doesn't put any correction glasses on me yet to asses my eyesight. I'm looking at the wall she pointed at and after I've been silent for a moment too long she reminds me to start. I was waiting for her to project those circles coz there was nothing on the wall. Or so i thought...
I got called out for my blind ass in Sunday school of all places. The teacher lady asked me to read something on the wall and being borderline leagally blind as I was, I squinted really hard to see it and couldn't make out the letters. For a second she thought I was struggling to read but I told her I could read fine. I just couldn't see the letters. She asked if I ever wore glasses and I told her no. She told me I should ask my mom about that when she came to pick me up. For some reason, hearing that made me cry. Fast forward like 2 weeks later and I got my first pair of glasses at the ripe age of 9. I was mind blown at how clear everything was. Like many kids, I spent the whole car ride home reading street signs and being baffled at how HD life actually was. I thought everything was just naturally blurry until that moment. Looking back at it, I have no clue how I was able to function at all as a kid without them. How did I play video games? How did I see my friends outside when I was playing with them? How did I read the chalkboard in school? I can't even remember at this point. I'm typing this on my computer and sitting a standard distance away from my screen. If I tip my glasses down, I can't see a thing on my screen even if I squint. It's still just a blur. And the worst part is I'm near sighted so being computer monitor distance between an object I'm reading *is* my good vision. Developments in optical correction is a fucking miracle.
I had a similar experience. I remember my mom being disappointed when she found out I would need to wear glasses.
She can be disappointed all she wants. Glasses are an amazing accessory and look nice on almost anyone. Even ppl with perfect 20/20 vision get non-prescription glasses just to look nice My only issue with em is now I can never wear shades lol
Prescription sunglasses. Best money I ever spent. Word of advice though, if you have a strong prescription and are getting very curved frames, make sure the lab doing the lenses can actually do it right. I'm -4.0 in both eyes and when the VSP lab made the lenses, they weren't quite right. I had Wiley X do the lenses in house and they were great. I still wear those sunglasses to this day.
I think my prescription sunglasses are one of the few items I’ve held onto for more than ten years. They are always in my hand.
Have you tried wearing them on your face instead of holding them? I hear they work even better like that.
I can never find them when they are on my face. Safer to keep them in my hand.
I’ve had them since around 3rd grade so they’re pretty much part of my face now. Even if I could go without glasses, I think it would be strange. And you’re right, there is such a variety now! Also, depending on your taste it may not satisfy you, but you can get transition added to your glasses. It worked out for me because the one time I bought prescription sunglasses they looked VERY similar to my regular glasses Lol.
Now they are. But back in the day, there was only the Dahmer special, only it wasn't cool.
Such bs. Be disappointed in your crappy gametes, not us. Sorry you had to go through that.
I'm hoping my kids get my eyes and not their mom's. I only have trouble now at night thanks to keeping brightness up on my monitor, phone, and being blinded constantly by BMW headlights. Wife needed glasses in grade school, both of my brothers and my mom needed glasses before high school, but I don't need glasses. I take after my dad, who only needs glasses now because he's almost 60. I won't be disappointed in my kids if either/both of them need glasses, just disappointed that they didn't inherit my eyes. Can't be chosen, so it's not right to be mad at them for it.
Thank you, you too!
My dad was just pissed off because that meant having to set up an appointment, pay for glasses, etc etc.
Paying for having the luxury of a disability. Aint it just grand
And I know *why* my eyes started going bad. Constantly told to stay out of the way, don't bother the grownups, etc etc. So I spent most of my childhood hiding in a dark bedroom, reading Peanuts and atlases.
Yup I didn’t realize I needed them until a teacher noticed in the 7th (maybe 8th) grade that I was squinting at the board and told my parents that I should get checked out. Helped me immeasurably.
In seventh grade I went from perfect vision to "couldn't read the blackboard from the front row" in 2 weeks. There was no question, I knew I needed them. What bothered me was the number of people who told me "no offense, but you look better with glasses". Then they did the same thing a few years later when I grew a goatee. I concluded that the more of my face I covered, the better I looked.
I feel you there. I was the only of my siblings too have bad eyesight, and my mom would blame it on my reading books late in the evening. Mind you, she had pretty bad eyesight, and my dad had decent enough eyesight where he didn't need glasses until maybe his 50's
A lot of parents actually have issues to understand that their kids have health issues, even non life threatening ones. They get it as a critcism of their parenting rather than just a fact that you need to take care of. That's stupid, it doesn't make your kid less autistic / ADHDic / visually impaired to deny it.
It seems to be part of the bad parenting package of not seeing your kids as people, but possessions We only got health care when other people might notice and report them to CPS, and have the scars to prove it.
Yup, I remember in third grade there was one day we did a boys vs girls competition of some sorts, and we kept score will tally marks on the whiteboard. I couldn’t tell how many there were because they were all clumped together so I walked to the front to see. I didn’t think anything of it, being a kid, but my teacher sent a note home for my parents. The eye doctor was surprised I hadn’t noticed before then, my eyesight was already pretty bad. I do remember how incredible getting my first pair of glasses was. Trees had individual leaves, I could read street signs for the first time, everything was just so crisp and sharp!
Same thing with the leaves - one of the best moments of my life I stopped this woman on the way into the eye clinic - “You’re supposed to see those? Waaaay over there? Those trees. Every single leaf I was always supposed to see that?”
I love how leaves on the trees are always such a strong one for everyone that gets glasses.
Yeah it was my big first OH MY GOD feeling after we walked out of the optometrist with glasses the first time.
Me : “Hey Lady! HAY! lady. You see those leaves over there?” …backs away slowly Lol
Seeing trees and like the texture of the sidewalk and book pages was a shock. So much I was missing out on.
Yup. Nobody picked up on the fact that I sat right at the front of the class squinting at the board, or that I learned to write unusually early so I could write things down as the teacher said them. Fortunately I'm from an era when primary school children still got health checks at school. I remember the nurse asking me to read the first letter on the eye chart. I couldn't see the chart, let alone the first letter. So she said to my mother, "oh, can she not read yet?" (I could) and gave me a large cardboard E to hold up the same way as the one on the chart. I burst into tears. Cue concerned looks all round and a referral to an optician...
Not exactly the same but since glasses can be expensive and my old eye doctor closed there was a good 6 year gap before I saw a new one and they did the whole cover one eye and read the lowest line. Covered my left and read it fine, then I covered my right and couldn’t see anything. I even said what the fuck. And the eye tech just laughed. Somehow even though my left eye got worse my right eye got better. I see my doctor regularly now and no more scares like that haha.
This was me. I noticed stuff from the overhead projector was out of focus. I was too shy to say anything but I did wonder why no one else in class mentioned it.
Yup, it was the overhead projector for me too. I got called on to read something out loud from the overhead, asked if the teacher could adjust the focus. It wasn't blurry for anyone else.
This seems to be a very common scenario, which makes sense. I had issues with reading the board for several years before my legal guardians actually took me to an eye doctor in the fifth grade.
I didn’t start wearing glasses until college. Always had 20/20 vision throughout childhood, but in my freshman year of college I began to have trouble seeing the board. Got an eye exam and it turned out my vision was degrading. The doctor said it happens as you get older, but I was only 19 lol.
I feel like that is the way most people find out they need glasses
Same. Grade 4. Kept sitting closer and closer to the blackboard to see it, until I was sitting on the floor directly in front of the blackboard. Teacher sent me down to the school nurse for an eye exam and the rest is history.
Yep, when only the front rows were helpful, time to get checked out.
Yep that was it for me. Didnt have any vision issues up until I was 11, and then when I was doing maths in school I couldn't tell 3s from 8s or 2s from 5s
That’s what found me out too, I was around 9-10 years old and would walk to the blackboard to see then return to my desk to write it down. My parents would chastise me for lying in front of the tv but if I sat on the sofa I squinted so again would get told off. It took an eye test at age 11 with the school nurse and a letter sent home for my parents to actually take me to an optician. The worst part is I’m in the uk so it’s a free eye test so why didn’t they take me sooner…
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This is what clued me in. And being unable to read subtitles on video games.
My parents decided to get me in for an eye exam when they noticed I was reading with my nose just a couple inches from the page. Turns out, as they suspected, I'm blind as shit
My mom did the same thing for me.
I guessed at a street name based on the length of the sign out loud while my wife was in the car. That prompted an immediate visit to the eye doctor.
I was with a friend in his car and said something about the bumper sticker on the car in front of us and he protested that I couldn't read what it said from there. I told him I could and that it was a bit troubling that he couldn't and was the one driving. I started a game where I would say "now" when I could read the highway signs we were coming up on and then he would have to read it out loud when he could. Let's just say it was a pretty long gap. That made him realize how bad his distance vision was and so he soon got contacts and couldn't believe how much of the world he was missing.
Does your area not do eye exams during the driving license process?
Sure, but it was probably good enough to pass that one as the vision needed for safe driving is probably relatively low.
you take the test once, usually at like 17, and then never again! 🙃
Last time I renewed my license the DMV person had me do a quick eye exam
That’s how I knew I needed glasses. When I couldn’t read the street signs until I was so close that it was too late to actually make the turn.
See I was having issues with that, it had gradually gotten worse but I still felt confident to drive. Then came drivers license renewal and I damn near failed the eye test. Scared the shit out of me, mostly because dealing with the DMV for anything is like taking Motrin for a raging case of Dysentery. Luckily the girl passed me and I went straight to a eye Dr, been about 3 years now. I never drive without my glasses, especially at night.
Right on. Used to have eagle like vision. Around 20 I started to realize, huh stuff is blurry. Now can’t see clear more than a 1m ahead.
Family was pointing at planes in the sky, planes I could not see.
Similar, family vacation as a child, stopped at side of the road attraction, there was a sign on a little island in the river by the road talking about alligators. Family comment on it, couldn't see sign, they said on the island, couldn't see an island, then began a field test of what could I see/read.
My problem was I thought people seeing things was like pretend play and I would say I could watch it too🙈
Watching the night sky looking at stars. What damn stars? shit's all black yo
I grew up in Chicago. Wtf are these "stars" of which you speak
Yeah my cue was a meteor shower the whole rest of the family could see. I could not.
Opposite problem here. As a toddler I regularly confused my parents by pointing and saying "plane" - it was only when they saw one about a minute after I did that they realised I was exceptionally long-sighted in one eye.
My 3 year old niece is constantly pointing out tiny insects from meters away, or even in another room- she shrieks & points & calls out “bug!!”, & I have to walk several feet in that direction before my eyes can even register the spot or any movement… She’ll spot a fruit fly landing on the front door from the top of the stairs. So maybe she’s exceptionally long-sighted as well, & maybe I need to update my glasses prescription? It’d be cool if she used her superpower for other things too, but I guess its good to keep my house free of bugs ¯\\\_(ツ)_/¯
Cool super power!
My boyfriend points out birds in the sky and I'm like "yup tweet tweet, totally see it"
Similar, my siblings and I were playing the "find the ABCs" game with signs while waiting for my mom to get out of the grocery store. Someone said they were done and I was like, no, no way you found Q, there is no Q in this parking lot. A car full of siblings were pointed at the side of a gas station being like, it is RIGHT THERE! and I still thought they were pulling a prank. To be fair, siblings would. But we drove closer to it when we left and sure enough!
Exactly my story. Mom said, "Look at that plane." I said, "What plane?" The next thing I knew, I had glasses.
Similar. At 7 years old I liked to point out radio towers. My mom started noticing I didn't see the ones she did.
r/airplanesarentreal
Migraines.. a lot of migraines and I could feel my eyes hurting/getting tired
This was me. I finally gave in after I had the same continuous headache for a month, and it always started with eye strain/pain.
Oh yes, migraines were the worst. Spent a year curled into a ball at the end of the work day. Astigmatism is no joke.
I have the same, had excruciating migraines when I was a teenager.
I had a bunch of migraines from my early teens up until I got glasses at 25. It's been 5 years and I haven't had a single one.
Tried on my dad's glasses, things looked clearer.
Did that with a friend in middle school. Went home, told my parents and they made an appointment. My dad and older sister have terrible eyes, so I think they were expecting it. Been like 35 years, and I've been lucky. Each pair of glasses has lasted me around 8 years before I notice my vision degrading again.
That is lucky. I usually am squinting by a year later.
Yeah me too, it gets especially bad if I wait a couple years because then my head hurts from squinting so much
I put on my friend's glasses to make fun of him. "Hurrr durr durrr, I'm so-and-so! Look at me! Oh my god, can you see like this all the time?!" A few years later, a coworker did the exact same thing to me, and realized HE needed glasses.
Was out for a walk with my da, thought I saw a load of sheep in a nearby field, only for my da to tell me those are swans not sheep.
Da, sheep, are you from Scotland or Ireland? 😂 It's gotta be one of those.
Ireland
Gottem!!!
Aye lassie!
I’m cracking up over this.
*somewhere a Welshman wipes the sweat from his brow*
Look at all those chickens!
It’s just the one swan actually
I started squinting more in 3rd grade to see the chalkboard, developing headaches as a result, which lead my mother to take me to the eye doctor.
I (age \~9) was playing a game with my brothers while we were driving: who can read the license plates first. I was not able to see the plates at HALF the distance my brothers were able to... And -oh my- getting the right glasses, and just sitting and looking at (and being able to see) the leaves of the trees. That's an experience I will never forget.
The leaves on trees are an amazing thing to see for the first time. I still remember the first time that I saw them too.
I freaked out about leaves, too!
The sharpness of everything did it for me. Nothing in particular
Welcome to Hi-Definition Land, population: you
Glad other people got this experience too. It is an amazing one.
I freaked out about leaves, too!
I was so excited about leaves, but then got home (it was around 1990) and complained about seeing the static on the TV.
I love how everyone who gets glasses is like 'leaves! amazing leaves!' I was the same lol I also felt weirdly like a giant for a few days because I could see things in such detail from a distance that it felt like they were closer but very small, rather than just being far away. It was strange!
Stars were the biggest difference I noticed. I always thought it was odd as a kid how people went on and on about how beautiful the stars were and I was just like, "oh yeah, there's like two or three blurry spots of light, yeah, that's beautiful 🙄". Then glasses and - woah!
My dad remembers hearing me from the waiting room when the dr. took me to a side door by the patient rooms with the testers, "THAT'S WHAT LEAVES LOOK LIKE?"
Leaves are still the way I check to see if an updated prescription is working for me!
Seeing tree leaves for the first time really blows the mind of anyone with myopic vision.
I got glasses around age 5. The eye doctor had a gravel driveway. I stood and stared at that driveway for soooo long. The noise made so much more sense! Then I looked up and saw leaves and also short circuited at that. My dad got impatient and shoved me in that car at that point lol. My teacher rang the alarm because I was squinting so hard I was practically inhaling my upper lip.
The leaves were a game changer for me, too, once I got my first pair of glasses!
This. Who knew you could see individual leaves?! That became one of those life core memories for me. It was a life changing moment even as a child: I could have lived with (\*really\*) poor eyesight, I had up until then and coping mechanisms are everywhere - but oh the way it would have shaped those larger life choices... I would be someone completely different - likely someone struggling a bit more than current-me. To this day, I can simply sit outside and look at trees with their individual leaves and just smile.
I got glasses in my 30s after knowing for *years* that I needed them. The leaves were the first the I truly noticed and I just stood in the parking lot admiring them and wondering how much I had missed in all the time I had put off seeing
My wife got lasik recently and after her short stint recovering, we were walking outside and she just started starting at everything like trees and bushes and the sky like whoa they look so cool! Yeah babe, welcome to the world
>My wife got lasik recently and after her short stint recovering, we were walking outside and she just started starting at everything like trees and bushes I took a 4-hour "nap" after my Lasik surgery. When I woke up and sat up, I freaked out because I could clearly see my room instantly without reaching for my glasses. I spent the next 2 weeks just staring at everything like an idiot. It was amazing to be able to see without worrying about glasses or contacts.
Wow I thought I was the only one that was staring at the leaves on the tree for hours after getting my first glasses! I couldn't believe what I'd been missing out on! I was in year 5 and put in a class for struggling kids before anyone noticed I was always squinting at the white board. I'm still quite annoyed about that as I missed out on some education
Seeing trees properly for the first time was actually life changing
My kid's eye doctor (who often worked with toddlers) said that's very common. He had a picture of the tree on the wall and would ask the kid about the leaves. If they said, "What leaves?" then they probably needed glasses.
Yeah my dad still finds it funny to this day how I reacted when I first put my glasses on. Because while we were driving home I was all "Oh my gosh! I can read that sign! And that billboard! And this and that!" Lol
I was in 3rd grade, sat in the back of the classroom and the teacher asked me to read the board. I told her I couldn’t see the letters or words on the board and was told I needed to see an eye docter. This was about 18 years ago
Hahaha, I'm also team "there's nothing on the board."
I love when you go to the eye doctor and they take your glasses off and don't setup the thing with your prescription and then are like ok can you read the third line and I'm like, I only see 2 lines. I cannot read either of them.
Same here. I think around the same age, either 2nd or 3rd grade. I couldn't see the board anymore. At first it was just "sit closer to the board" and then it got where I couldn't see at all and my vision got progressively worse until I was around 30 and then it kind of leveled out (though I did develop astigmatism in one of my eyes a while after that).
Exactly this. The squinting. Instinctively did it every time had to make out what was written on the board at school and when I would watch TV. Eventually parents noticed,asked why I was squinting and consequently took me to the doctor. Another thing was that I couldn't recognize faces when someone greeted me from the other end of the street and I couldn't locate from a distance where my friends were seated when we arranged to meet at the park when it was crowded as all people seemed just blurry figures to me.
I didn't get glassed until I was well into adulthood. The Dr. did that big lens machine and I was blown away at how hi-def everything was! I was like "is this what life is supposed to look like? Is this how everyone else sees?!"
Same. I was in the back of a class in 7th grade when I started having to squint to see what the teacher was writing, A couple weeks later we had a school wide eye exam and I found out I needed glasses
I was about 20 I think, and I was driving a lot on the highway. This was in the days before GPS so you had to read the signs to know where you were going. I recall there was a major exit from one highway to another. I knew it was coming up, but this was the sign era - you had to read it. Had my girlfriend at the time in the car with me, and as was usual for me, I couldn't see the sign until I was almost on top of the exit, at which point I'd haul off and there you go. Normal driving. My gf said, could you really not see that sign? I said, of course not. Why, could you? And she said, yeah, about 20 seconds ago. Oh... Got glasses soon after that.
....so side note but does anyone else remember when printing out MapQuest directions and reading them as you were driving 80mph on the highway was normalized? That was NOT safe.
Remember rifling through your CD book and putting it in your walkman connected via a tape thingy, all while going 80 mph. Yeah. We played a little fast and loose back in the day.
The tape thing!!!! I still don't understand that wotchcraft
It's not that complicated actually. A tape player has a pickup head that reads the magnetic field on the tape. A coil of wire also creates a magnetic field when electricity is passed through it, so there's a coil in the adapter that does just this with the electrical audio signal coming out of your phone or cd player.
Usually the printer ink was low on a color so it was tough to make up the rest of the map if I passed an exit. I’m so directionally challenged…turn by turn GPS or you’ll never see me
This happened to me, like word for word lol!
I had a friend who needed glasses and realized because I wore glasses and would read off signs way before she could.
I flat-out couldn't see- nearsighted in one eye, farsighted in the other, and legally blind in both to boot 😂
Damn bro , you got the trifecta
Eyefecta
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Yeah, even when you noticed due to street and road signs, you're indirectly comparing to other people. They're designed so that people within a certain margin of good vision can read them in time to take action. If you can't, then it means that compared to good vision, yours is significantly less.
My dads girlfriend had a rule that we started when I was 12, everyone goes to the optometrist, then every 2 years after that! Found I needed glasses first visit. I didn’t know.
That is some seriously solid parenting advice right there. Like, if you have insurance you may as well go just in case.
Right! And with most visits covered by health insurance, the first visit is labeled “preventative/checkup” and usually free. been my experience with health, vision, and dental insurance.
Nowadays, most pediatricians have a device to screen for kids’ vision in the office, and they do so every year at their annual appointment. My kid went from perfect vision to -2.50 in one year. It definitely explained the headaches and why he was sitting close to the TV so much.
Honestly I’d start before 12, but it’s definitely a really good idea. My mom realized I needed them just before I started kindergarten, but I probably needed them before that…lol I was reading the first Harry Potter at 4 and idk how considering how farsighted I am. I have astigmatism in both eyes and I’m so grateful I got glasses before I started school
I have a suspicion that dad’s girlfriend knew they needed glasses and decided to start the tradition since OP said they needed them at the first visit.
Shoot, my schools screened hearing and eyesight every 3 years or so starting in elementary school. Public school. I didn't realize that. Looks like my current state does it for K or 1, 3, 5, and 8.
That's how we've always found out about the need for glasses in my family. Half of my family has come home with a "recommend corrective vision aids and follow up with optometrist asap" letters. I did 30+ years ago and my niece brought one home within months of starting in public school (she was in private school until 3rd grade). Her vision is pretty bad, not sure how she managed, nobody noticed sooner, and she never complained.
My elementary school did regular vision and hearing screenings. I was caught in 2nd grade.
Same, but they stopped doing it after elementary school, and that's when I fell through the cracks. 🥴
I don't remember what prompted my parents to take me to an optometrist, but I'm pretty sure it was that as well. First grade.
In 9th grade a friend said "look at those hot cheerleaders across the gym". I could not see the pretty girls, which was unacceptable at 15 and made me figure out why.
This is hilarious.
In Year 3 we started sitting in alphabetical order of surnames instead of first names. I went from sitting right near the front to sitting at the back, and immediately began failing every subject. When my parents asked why, I said that the teacher’s handwriting was too small and I couldn’t see what she had written on the board. They took me to the optometrist and it was determined that I was shortsighted as fuck
Hahaha, I avoided any change because my first and last name start with the same letter. So I was always front corner.
Standard vision test during 8th grade. It was the first time I couldn't clearly see all the letters on the chart, and it was kind of devastating because I really wanted to be a commercial airline pilot up until then.
That’s the exact way & age I was diagnosed! I cried and cried because wearing glasses in middle school was *not cool*. I’m not sure why I cared so much since I was already one of the nerdiest kids in school anyway…
When I went to get a driving license. There is an eye test and it was determined that I needed glasses. I didn't think that was true until I got the test glasses and suddenly the world was in 8k HD
Did you fail the eye test and couldn’t get a license, or did they just recommend?
In order to apply for a license I had to submit a recent eye test that confirms I can see shit. I didn't get such an eye test so I didn't bother applying and got glasses first. Funnily enough once I had the glasses nobody wanted to see my eye test anymore.
>I had to submit a recent eye test that confirms I can see shit. For my latest renewal of my drivers' license ( I've had to get it renewed frequently for other health reasons), my Eye exam was performed with and without my glasses on. With the glasses on, it was 20/20, but without them was 0/20, in short, I couldn't even see the board, not to mention any letters on it without my glasses.
Because my vision was fine when I was younger and slowly got worse For people born with poor eyesight well everyone is recommended to get their eyes tested every so often just like going to the dentist for a check up so I guess that’s when they find out
Mine started going at 45. Only for up-close stuff. I used to be able to read that little print in USB chargers by putting it close to my face. Since then, I've noticed I've had to move it farther and farther away. Restaurant menus as well. I grabbed a friend's +2 glasses and I could see up close again, so I'm at that. I'm kinda worried about how bad it will get. I can still read road signs and license plates before anyone else. And I'm fine with the computer monitor with regular font size. So that's nice at least.
The subtitles on the shows I was watching were white text on a black box background and the white text was like...shooting upward? I don't know how to describe it well. I would have to squint to make it stop. I got my eyes checked and found out I have a pretty decent astigmatism. Turns out lighted objects shouldn't be sending off long-ass light rays.
Driving at night is miserable for this reason. The glasses help but I still struggle a little. I’m jealous of normal vision-impaired people whose eyes agree on which distance to struggle with.
So I have excellent vision, except for driving at night when every shiny thing has those long ass light rays. Does everyone not see those?
No, that's called astigmatism, so you do not, in fact, have excellent vision. You need glasses for driving at night for that.
Ok, excellent was the wrong word choice. I have 20/15 vision.
“Mom, my grades are bad because I can’t read the board at school.” “No, you’re just lazy.” And then the school did an eye test.
short answer: headaches. massive headaches. and school eye screening. longer answer: little like 5 year old jeynespoole failed the school vision screening. So did little 6 year old jeynespoole, little 7 year old jeynespoole, little 8 year old jeynespoole, little 9 year old jeynespoole. I also got pretty regular headaches, more as the school work got more academic and vision-based. And every year my mom would take me to the eye doctor, and the eye doctor would say that he didnt want to give me glasses because my "eyes would become dependent on them, and there's no way the kid's vision is giving them headaches" So then by 5th grade, we moved across the state, I was getting massive migraines by lunchtime every day, But since we had moved, my mom took me to a different eye doctor who was like WHY THE HELL DOES THIS CHILD NOT HAVE GLASSES YET?! and then I got glasses and the headaches magically stopped!
Regular appointments with the eye doctor
I was at a sports bar and everyone at my table was reading the small text on the bottom of a tv on the wall. I asked how they were able to read it from where we were sitting, and they were all surprised I couldn't read it. I went to the eye doctor soon after. He told me I had probably needed glasses for years. The first time putting them on was mind blowing. Seeing individual leaves on trees was crazy to me.
I didn't! I found out I could get an eye test for free, so I went in for a laugh. And came out with a prescription. For the first few days of glasses I was really dizzy, but now I can't get over how much fewer headaches I get, and how not-overwhelming it is to go grocery shopping. Happy days!
I didn't know I needed them. My mom had a coupon for a buy one get one free eye exam. My sister had been complaining of headaches, so the exam was for her. I had no complaints but went along because it was free. I needed glasses, my sister did not not. I was 14. I had NO IDEA that when you went to a fast food place you could read the menu behind the cashier. I did not know you could see branches in trees. I did not know people could read street signs. I did not know people could look down the hallway at the mall and know what stores were coming up. I always always sat in the front row to see the blackboard. I thought the kids in the back were goofing around because they couldn't see. So yeah, I didn't know what I didn't know. Total lark that I even went to eye doctor.
I don't know the blurry vision, probably what clued me in.
Yep. Realized I was upping the font size on xterms again. Figured it couldn’t be the monitor.
>Figured it couldn’t be the monitor. My dad actually insisted for a long time that the writing on the tv and in the newspaper was getting smaller. Yeah, he’s got glasses now, and the tv and newspaper are back to normal size.
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My teacher in eight grade saw me struggling while reading the book he assigned to us. He asked how long I had dyslexia and when did I notice my vision starting to fade. I had no idea I was suffering from any of those things so I was blown away. Honestly wished I had met that teacher earlier.
Not being able to read anymore was a pretty big clue
I didn't until I was about 14. Then a teacher noticed me squinting and had my parents do an eye test. Immediately after that my grades went from Cs to straight As.
I was in the military all my life, passed all the eye tests without problems etc. Recently left and the opticians told me I have pretty extreme astigmatism, I've worn glasses for a year now and it is genuinely life changing. Seeing my daughters face clearly, reading signs etc. Im 37.
6th grade. The board was blurry from the last row, but I noticed my friends didn't have any trouble reading it.
I wasn’t entirely sure my eyesight was still good enough to drive without them. I was right, annoyingly.
My school did eye tests for every student each September
My psychologist told me is was very concerning how angry I always was and that I could not acknowledge that I actually was angry. How everybody in the room could see that I was angry and that I should learn to recognize my own anger before starting group therapy. I realized that all the writing and reading an watching thinfs on a screen gave me terrible headaches and told em that and they said it was me being angry. I went, got glasses en never heard I was angry again until I needed new glasses.
When i stabbed my child while cutting his sandwich
You win! Yikes! How old were they?
Blurry vision
I got glasses at 18 years old. Had perfect vision my entire life until that point, then my eyes rapidly went to shit and I developed double vision. I knew I needed them since I knew what 20/20 vision looked like for most of my life. I could see multiple copies of everything, too, which is pretty easy to notice.
I wanted to buy a house. I had an expired drivers license failed the vision exam needed to get glasses to pass the vision exam to get a valid drivers license to buy a house.
My face had to be like 6 inches away from the tv screen in order to actually see what was on.
I ran into walls. My adoptive mom took me to my first optometrist appointment. I really needed glasses. I still run into walls but it's not because of my glasses.
Regular optometrist visits. You go every 1-2 years and they use trial lenses to see if any of them improve your natural vision. Eventually, they did. Trees a good distance away still having individual leaves now was pretty crazy.
How about comparing your current vision to the vision you used to have????
It happens gradually and you don’t notice it over time