Switzerland is a great place to live, but let’s face it. It’s expensive as f… I have to pay taxes for everything! But I love living here.
I was born in Canada, my mom is Portuguese, my dad French and when I was 9 years old we moved to Hungary with my stepdad. I lived there most of my life but when I was 22 I came to Switzerland with my boyfriend at that time.
He was an abusive manipulative moron, who would go as far as taking my glasses from me and hide them so I couldn’t get out the house.
You see, I was born one month earlier than planned and that brought a lot of issues to me, but the ones that affects me the most are a rare heart condition that cause me to faint sometimes and the high myopia I’ve had since birth.
My first pair of glasses were so thick my mom cried when she saw me wearing them, and growing up in a post-soviet country didn’t help because my step dad thought bad vision was bullshit and he kept telling me to take my glasses off. Of course at that time my prescription was almost as high as it is right now and I couldn’t see anything, without glasses. I felt my eyes straining and even turning inwards when my thick lenses weren’t there for them to focus through.
“Nicole, you’re gonna really make some damage to your eyes. Take those coke bottles off!” He yelled at me
“Mom, but I can’t see if I have them off. Please don’t make me do it” I begged
But she was way to in love (or way to stupid) and she always asked me to take them off for 20 minutes. I never handed them my glasses, whenever I was forced to take them off, I held them in my hand because I didn’t trust no one with them
That time my step dad made me take them off we were at the public pool, and I remember everyone was playing and having a great time and there I was without being able to even move because I was afraid of tripping with someone. My eyes were also photosensitive so the bright sunlight didn’t help.
“Nicole, come over here” I heard my stepbrother yelling
I started walking to the place I thought they were at but the inevitable happened and I fell into a pool. Bad news is that it wasn’t just any pool, it was the wave pool.
I don’t know how many minutes went by till someone saw me fighting for my life and the lifeguard went to get me but it was enough time for me to pass out. Remember I have a heart condition? Yeah that one is not funny at all either.
I don’t remember anything, when I woke up I was in a hospital bed and my mom said
“Oh thank god Nicky, please tell me you’re ok. My sweet baby I’m so sorry”
“What happened?” I asked
“You fainted on the pool” My stepdad said
“No she didn’t dad, she couldn’t see the pool and she…”
“She fainted Lucas, that’s what she does alright?” my stepdad interrupted my brother
“Mom, where are my glasses. Can you please give them to me?” I said
“I don’t know where they are sweetie I’m sorry. We’ll go by the pool later to see if someone took them to the lost and found objects ok?” Mom said
I hated to be like this, but there was nothing I could do so I fell asleep…
When the doctor came to sign my release he started to check me
“So Nikki, how are you feeling?”
“I’m ok, thank you” I said
“Alright, can you please open your eyes so I can see them?” He asked politely
I made the effort to keep them open but if you wear glasses as strong as mine, you know it’s hard because they hurt and you feel them straining hard.
“Does she have a condition on her eyes we’re not aware of?” The doctor asked
“Well she wears thick glasses” My mom said
“And why don’t we have that on the sheet we asked you to fill?”
“Oh because that’s not important” said my stepdad “she is fine, the more she wears those things, the worse her eyes will be”
“What? I’m sending her to have her eyes checked right now, she won’t be dismissed yet” The doctor said angry
About 20 minutes later a nurse came to get me and she led me to the ophthalmology department.
The ophthalmologist was the best, he explained to me everything and when he was done checking my eyes he had me wearing a pair of funny glasses. He said I could have them till tomorrow if I wanted to, my glasses weren’t going to be ready until next week but as long as I was at the hospital he’d lend me those funny glasses.
When I came back to my room, the doctor went right behind me and he was super angry. He told my parents they were neglecting me and that I had to have my glasses at all times, he explained I was wearing the strongest prescription he has ever seen and that me being without glasses was an absolute hazard for me.
The prescription was:
O.D.
SPH -22.5 CYL -4.00 AXIS 95º
O.S.
SPH -24 CYL 3.5 AXIS 120º
He said I was considered a low vision patient because even with my glasses my vision wasn’t as good as everyone else’s.
My step dad wanted to argue but the doctor shut him up with real arguments.
That was the day they understood I REALLY needed my glasses.
I grew up with a weird twisted concept about what love is, so when my ex asked me out I was more than exited. First of all I couldn’t believe someone would actually want to date a girl like me, I was pretty, tbh, but my glasses were so weird and still I couldn’t see that good.
He was kind and nice at the beginning, he even asked me to wear my glasses when we showered together or when we were making love.
Things went wrong one day we were at Costco, because I was trying to read the small print in a tuna pack and a nice attendant went to help me.
“Those small letters and these small eyes are not a good combination” I said laughing
The guy laughed maybe out of pity but Rodo, my ex, didn’t think it was funny at all. He went right where we were and asked the guy to leave. He then said I was flirting and that he couldn’t believe I could do that.
I told him what was going on and he said
“Well if you can’t keep your eyes off of other guys, I’ll make sure to keep your glasses off of your eyes” and he took my glasses off of me
“RODO STOP!” I yelled but he didn’t care and started walking to the exit. I followed the big red moving shape of his body and when I was close enough I held his arm
“Baby please, I’m not looking at anyone else. Please can I have my glasses back?” I begged
“Maybe, you need to compensate me for this Nicks”
How did I do that? You may ask…
I had to give him a bj in the parking lot…
That routine was more often than I would like to admit. Whenever he felt like it he took my glasses off and hid them in his pocket or sometimes he would leave them at random places like the fridge or the table counters.
I thought he loved me and it took a lot of therapy to get out of that relationship.
I’ll tell you a little bit more about him tomorrow, my boss is coming and I need to get back to work… But thank you for reading me.
https://vision-and-spex.com/i-thought-that-was-love-t2661.html