By the summer of 1984 I was your typical low self esteem riddled pre teen! 12 years old, a mouth full of braces, and, of course, a pair of glasses permanently perched on my face. By that time my prescription had crept up into the -4 range so the glasses were a necessity. That year for vacation we attended a family reunion in Maine. My fears were realized when, upon arrival, I figured out that I was the only kid (out of like 17) in the family that had glasses. Now kids love wearing them and there’s no stigma attached, but then it was a different story! My glasses were a curiosity which launched a barrage of teasing, taunting, etc…. At first I tried to play it off that I only wore them sometimes. I would attempt to take them off and go without, but as I really couldn’t see that didn’t work for long so I just endured. I was at my low ebb of despair when I met Jennifer. She was the daughter of my aunt’s neighbor and she was my age and rather pretty and, oh yes, she wore glasses!!! Immediately a bond was formed! Her glasses were different than mine. They made her eyes look bigger. We used to like switching glasses and commenting on how blind the other one was. She had been wearing hers all the time since kindergarten and was pretty lost without them. I spent almost all the rest of our two weeks with her and her family and it was so relaxing to be able to wear my glasses without being teased by the family! On our last weekend her father took us to an amusement park in Holyoke mass and it was a day from heaven!! We rode the rides together. She loaned me her extra strap so our glasses would stay on. That night we got home to Maine and we were sitting on her back porch. It was dark and no one could see us. I summoned up the nerve to steal a kiss. She liked it and we French kissed for 20 minutes! Our glasses rubbing together aroused me in ways I hadn’t felt yet, but I knew I liked it!!! When we left two days later I was devastated! We promised to write and we did once or twice, but I never saw Jen again. When I returned to school that fall for 7th grade I had a new confidence. I knew that no matter how awkward I felt someone had found me cute, interesting, attractive, and worth spending time with!! From that point on I’ve always only been interested in girls with glasses. 30 years later whenever I’m in a crowd at an airport I always look for girls with plus lenses. I’m hoping that one of them will be my long lost Jen.