The year I was 15 I was in grade 10 at Holy Cross High. You had to be 15 anytime after January first to be in 10th grade, and I was one of the oldest kids in my class, as I would be turning 16 the 2cnd of February the following year. When school started, we had a number of students that had come from 2 other Junior High’s, but I knew most of them from playing sports against the other 2 schools. There was one girl that I had never seen before, and while I didn’t have a lot of interest in girls yet, she was a very nice person to talk to. Her name was Josie and she was in my home room and was also in most of my classes. Josie was not heavy but was big boned and she had a fairly large head. She certainly wasn’t fat, but she did have substantial breasts and a lot of the guys went on and on about how they would like to put their head between her boobs. She didn’t wear glasses, but she did have a pair of glasses that she seemed to need to put on whenever she was reading or doing close work. I thought that only old people wore glasses for reading, but with Josie it seemed as if this wasn’t always the case. I rather liked the appearance of girls wearing glasses, but Josie’s lenses didn’t do much for me as they magnified her eyes and I liked the other type that most of the girls I knew wore. Josie and I were in grade 11 together and that was the year that the covid_19 virus hit. After March break we did not go back to school that year. We had to do home schooling as best as we could, and the teachers were on the internet guiding us in our learning. Of course, we couldn’t write end of year exams, but we already had done 2 sets of exams for the year and the teachers were going to assess us on our participation in the online classes. This basically meant that if you had a passing grade at Christmas and Easter you were going to be promoted to grade 12, so I wasn’t too worried as my grades had always been fairly decent. While we were off school, sometime over the summer I heard through the grapevine that Josie had been pretty sick from the virus. Her mom was a nurse, and she had picked it up while she was working at the hospital, even though we hadn’t had many cases in our fairly remote town. Everyone in Josie’s immediate family had been sick but apparently had recovered, so I was looking forward to seeing Josie when school went back in September. By September a vaccine had been released to the market, and a test for the virus was now as close as the nearest drugstore. Schools all opened, and things gradually returned to what everyone called the new normal. The first day of school I noticed a new student in my classroom. I could tell from a distance that this girl wore really strong glasses because the sides of her face were totally dished in by the power of the lenses. I took a second look at her, and I was pretty sure it was Josie. As I walked closer, I could tell that sure enough, it was Josie. I was dying to ask her what happened to her eyes, but I was smart enough to keep my mouth shut as I had read that questioning a girl about their eyesight was not a subject that you brought up unless she started the discussion first. I suspect that Josie was talking to the teacher about her eyesight, because she was now sitting in the front row of the desks. A seat up there was not where any of us would have chosen and they were reserved for the kids that got into trouble in class. We had never before had anyone with such poor vision that they requested a front row seat. Now I didn’t know that was the reason for Josie sitting there, but I certainly suspected it, and I could hardly wait to have it confirmed. I managed to maneuver myself so that Josie and I were able to walk down the hall to our next class together. I mentioned that I had heard she was sick, and she simply confirmed that she had been quite ill. I was dying to ask about her wearing glasses instead of contacts, but we arrived at the next classroom and she again went up to chat with the teacher. She was seated in the front row in that class also. I walked to the next class with Josie, and this time she brought up her glasses. “I suppose you are wondering why I am not wearing my contacts. If you have lunch with me, I will tell you.” Josie said. I merely answered that I was indeed wondering, but that was not a condition for me to want to sit with her at lunch. That must have been the right answer as she smiled at me. My heart melted as I looked into her tiny eyes through the strong lenses in her glasses. After class ended, I walked with Josie to the cafeteria for lunch. “You know that my whole family had that virus thing?” Josie asked. “I think everybody in town knew and were praying for you and your family.” I said. “I didn’t know I shouldn’t be wearing contacts and that if I got sick, I should definitely not wear them. I got pink eye from it and I think it damaged my eyes because now I can’t tolerate my contacts anymore. Mom thought I just needed new contacts, but the eye doctor said that I had such a bad case I might never be able to wear them again.” Josie told me. “Does that bother you?” I asked. “Yeah, it did at first. I was terrified about coming back to school wearing glasses. Where we used to live, I was known as the girl with the thick glasses and while no one was really nasty to my face I overheard lots of snide comments about how blind I must be. I got contacts when I was 13 and have worn them steadily ever since. That was 3 years ago last month and I didn’t plan on letting anyone ever see me wearing glasses again. I knew I couldn’t get rid of my glasses permanently until I was in my late 20’s and could have my eyes operated on for those implantable contact lenses, but I had already started saving for that when this happened.” Josie said. “You don’t look bad wearing glasses. It was a shock to see you with them, but I am used to them by now and it’s only day one.” I answered. “Well, thank you for the kind words Kenny. I can ‘t see anything but a blur unless I am wearing them so it’s good to know that at least one boy doesn’t mind my appearance.” Josie replied. “They certainly don’t scare me away Josie. You are still a nice person.” I said. “I have to admit that you have been the nicest person to me since I came back wearing my glasses. No one else has even really tried to talk to me.” Josie said. “It’s only the first day back, and I suspect that it was as much of a shock for your other friends to see you wearing your glasses as it was for me. But, as I said before, you are a nice person and after the others get over the surprise of seeing you wearing glasses, I am sure everyone will accept you as you are.” I responded. “That makes me feel better. My mom always told me that I should wear my glasses to school once in a while so that if I had to wear them permanently again people would know how bad my eyesight was. But I wanted to hide that, so I never took her advice.” Josie told me. We went back to class without me asking any of the questions that I was dying to ask. I wanted to know why she had been wearing reading glasses if she wore contacts for extreme myopia. I would have loved to know what she actually could see without glasses, and if she had seemed receptive to my questions I might have asked her about her prescription unless she happened to mention what it was before I could ask. But I had been on the internet and had noticed that one piece of advice that I should follow was to not show any undue interest in her glasses or her vision. The advice told me that if I was interested in her as a person asking these questions might make her think that my only interest in her was for her glasses, and that would not be good for a future relationship. I didn’t know that I wanted a future relationship, but Josie wore glasses that were at the top end of the myopia scale and I considered her an extreme myope. I have to be honest with myself, and even though I had not dated anyone to this point I was seriously asking Josie for a date. We had a school dance coming up, and I figured she would not mind dancing as she didn’t need great eyesight to dance. A day or two passed without me saying anything more than a friendly hi to Josie whenever I saw her. She had been chatting with a number of people at different times, and I didn’t want to break in. But on Monday I decided I had better ask her to the dance on Friday. I did find a chance to ask her and her face lit up as she accepted my invitation. The “Virus’ had closed all license bureau offices, and all driver’s exams had been cancelled or postponed. If it hadn’t been for that I would have had my beginner’s driver’s license, but I still wouldn’t have been able to drive at night or even with a passenger. Unfortunately we were going to either have to walk to the dance, or I needed to pay for a taxi, but when I explained that to Josie she told me that if I walked to her place her dad would drive us to the school. Then if I wanted to take a taxi home we could. It all worked out extremely well. We had a great time at the dance and after the dance we walked to one of the restaurants that had managed to survive through the time they had to be closed. I bought myself a burger and fries, but Josie just wanted to share some of my fries as she said she was watching her weight. She liked it when I told her that she looked nice and slim to me, but she said because she was big boned like her dad she really needed to be careful not to let herself get too heavy. “Why did you wear reading glasses last year in school?” I managed to ask. “My contacts are so strong that they make everything look really small. I have to strain to see up close and I need to bring my books so close to my face that it makes me look blind when I do that. My doctor suggested I use glasses for reading, and that really helped. The glasses I am wearing are not strong enough anymore and I have a new pair on order. When I get them, they won’t work very well for reading so I will need to keep wearing this pair in school.” Josie said. “I guess it takes a while for you to get new glasses in your prescription then. Can they not put the reading portion in your new glasses?” I asked. “I don’t know what you know about glasses Kenny. Mine are very strong and they now need to have a curved in front so they can’t really put in a reading portion on a curved front. Also, my new glasses will have circles in the back where the prescription is too strong to go to the edges. These old glasses should have been made that way, but these were the strongest glasses they could make that had flat fronts and they were the highest index lens that was available at the time. When I was wearing contact lenses my eyes got as bit worse, and these glasses are too weak for me now. I still hope to be able to go back to wearing contacts after a little more time goes by, so I didn’t want my dad to spend so much money on my glasses that he wouldn’t be able to buy me contacts if I could wear them again.” Josie told me. “If you don’t mind me asking, do you know what the prescription is in the glasses to are wearing?” I asked. “These glasses are -26D. My new ones need to be -28.50D. I got my first glasses when I was a year old and they were around -20D. I really didn’t have much change in my prescription as I was growing up, and it wasn’t until I was 11 or 12 that my breasts started growing and my eyesight got worse rapidly. I know when I got my first pair of contact lenses at age 13 my glasses prescription was OD -23.50 and OS -23.50 – 0.50 x 90. A year and a half later my prescription had increased to -26D for both eyes and that is when I got these glasses. When I started school here my contacts were even stronger, but I didn’t get new glasses then as I figured I would always wear my contacts.” Josie told me. “That is definitely a strong prescription, but as long as you can see fairly well with your new glasses it shouldn’t matter how strong they need to be.” I replied. “I have never been able to see things that most other people can, but I have learned how to function as well as I possibly can. I hope my poor eyesight doesn’t scare you away, because it sure would be nice to have a boyfriend around.” Josie replied. “It doesn’t scare me away. It does concern me that you might go blind and I would be hesitant about having a wife who was blind. But hopefully that is a long way off, and I hope you never reach that point.” I answered. After that first date Josie and I spent a lot of time together. My mom cautioned me to be very sure that Josie was the girl I wanted, and I told her I really liked her, but I was a long time, and maybe a few more girlfriends away from getting married. That seemed to placate her. If we did reach a point where we ever got married, I am sure mom would realize that Josie is a very nice person, and she can’t help it that she was born premature and ended up with really poor vision. No one else in her family wear glasses, so I am sure it would not be hereditary. I think a lot about whether or not I could handle living with a wife that was blind, but I think I could and as long as I am prepared for that everything should be good. I really do like it that Josie wears such strong glasses, and she looks extremely attractive wearing her new ones. If it hadn’t been for the virus, I would never have known that Josie was highly myopic and needed to wear strong glasses or contact lenses. I also don’t know why the glasses she so badly needs turn me on so much, but they do. I really have to thank that Covid-19 virus for leading me to Josie. Spec4ever April 2020