But I Smile Anyway…

Day 21 of Linda’s #JusJo Jan challenge, combined with her prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday.

Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday and Just Jot It January is: “glass.” Use the word “glass,” or find something that’s made of it and use that in your post. Have fun!

Glass... Hmm, the first thing that comes to mind is glasses. Of the optical kind. You know, spectacles!

I am not a glasses wearer anymore. Around 2009 I had laser eye surgery to correct my extreme short-sightedness, and an astigmatism in one eye.It was then that I finally waved goodbye to my prescription glasses!

I was the tender age of eleven when I began to suffer awful headaches and blurry vision. An eye test proved that I needed glasses.

I recall so clearly the first day I wore my new specs home. I watched Neighbours every evening on BBC 1, and that day I was amazed at the fact that I could actually see the characters. But previously, I hadn’t even realised how blurry they had been. My whole world had been a blur, and now it was crystal clear!

At the time I was not a fashion conscious person at all. A pair of glasses meant nothing to me… and when I look at the photos I can tell! Good God, what was I thinking when choosing my frames! From a granny, to Sue Pollard, I had plenty of ‘looks’!

Then I developed a sense of style… well, kind of, and I hated to get photographed in them! As soon as I was able, I got contact lenses, at sixteen, then I felt top of the world!

It was great! I could wear sunglasses, do my makeup, and generally felt less self-conscious too.

As I started university, I realised that I was not going to be able to hide behind my contacts forever, so I invested in much nicer frames which still looked rather cool. At least in halls, or at lectures, the morning after a late night, it didn’t bother me what I was wearing, because the glasses were pretty trendy!

Then I realised that contacts weren’t always fun, especially if you fell asleep with them on, or if you managed to lose one!

Getting older, once I started work in the bank, I stopped wearing the contacts, unless I was going out. The specs lent a much more professional vibe!

Then after marriage, came kids, and the sleepless nights.

It was during those years that I started to wish for neither glasses nor contacts, but for my sight back. Grappling for my specs at night to tell the time as a baby woke for a middle of the night feed, or sometimes just wanting to know the time because the baby hadn’t woken, it occurred to me how much faffing around I was doing.

When Hubby Dearest suggested laser, I was intrigued but also scared. It was a frightening thought, someone cutting at your eye, but the outcome was something very appealing.

I didn’t get the courage up to even enquire until Lil Princess was a few months old, and was then told I had to wait until six months after I stopped breastfeeding before having the treatment.

So that was a possibility of another eight or so months before I could see again.

I did it, though.

And the feeling of opening my eyes, once they had settled the next morning, and seeing clearly straight away was mind blowing! It was like the first day of wearing glasses!

So it’s been eight years since I waved goodbye to my glasses, and as far as I know, my sight is still 20:20!

There you have it! Glass!