#132ndpost

[olivelovesbeeeeeees]

today, this morning of February 4th of the year 2022, is a pivotal day to mark - only for me, personally.

i am getting LASIK eye surgery.

for a quarter of a century, i have had to use corrective lenses to see the world around me clearly. i have used glasses since i was 11 in 6th grade and then contact lenses came into the mix when i was 15 during my sophomore year of high school.

man, contact lenses were a game changer - practicality wise and of course, aesthetically. even the smallest activity of being able to lay down and roll over to faceplant it on your pillow feeling that cool, clean surface of your pillowcase against your skin without a pair of glasses poking into your facial flesh…god, it’s wonderful. i honestly thought i was going to use them for the rest of my life, which was fine by me. not gonna lie though, i did use and abuse them. i wore pairs longer than i had should (i even wore them for days at a time without taking them out), i slept with them on, when i would lose a single lens i would still wear the only lens remaining to the point where that one eye that had the lens would start compensating for my vision.

simply put, i was a typical poor college student that tried to stretch my income to the point where I compromised the health of my vision. i hit a point where my eyes started to be extremely photosensitive- i had to wear sunglasses at night because the streetlights and traffic lights were too bright and looking at them was comparable to looking straight at the sun during the day. and of course, my myopia (nearsightedness) was getting worse and worse and the diopters of my eyes were getting higher and higher, a twenty-fifth or a fiftieth of a hundredth at a time.

well, no more!

my eyes are getting a 2nd chance at a fresh start.

and the complete irony of all this! my worst fear: to lose my eyesight, to go blind. i cannot fathom the idea that i would not be able to see the outside world (see the sunlight highlighting angles and creating shadows), i would not be able to see my kids physically evolve, i would not be able to look through a camera’s viewfinder to compose my photos, i would not be able to see marvelous cups of coffee and plates of food in front of me. ALL of that is god awful.

so. in a nutshell, take care of your eyes. value your vision. and if you see someone visually impaired, it is a hard reminder of the simple things we have and should be very grateful for. oh, and gauge as to whether they need assistance or not while you’re in their vicinity.

P.S. i’m so very excited to get a new driver’s license because for the very 1st time since i’ve been able to legally drive, my card will no longer have this printed on its plastic surface: “Restrictions: B - Corrective Lenses.”

yessssss. 😌