Ashley, Amber and Alyssa, that’s us, the three A’s. When we started kindergarten there used to be four A’s, but Adriana moved away when we were in grade 2 and that left the three of us to continue on through to the end of grade 12 together. The first day of school when I met Ashley I was intrigued by the glasses that she wore on her face. I knew a few adults who wore glasses, but Ashley was the first person my age who wore them. She didn’t seem to mind that I asked her a few questions about her glasses and she willingly told me that she was quite nearsighted and had gotten glasses when she was 2 years old. She also told me that she never took them off except to clean them because without them she couldn’t even see who I was when I was standing just a couple of feet away from her. Ashley was about my height and build, which was a pretty normal size for someone of kindergarten age. We were both blonds and had similar skin tones. Amber, who was also there with us on the first day, was slightly shorter than we were. Her hair was dark, and she wore it cut much shorter than we did. She was extremely pretty, and her skin tone matched her name. I learned later on that the amber coloring of her skin was due to the fact that her mother was Asian, and her dad had some African American in his heritage, although he easily could have passed for all white. Neither Amber nor I wore glasses when we started kindergarten. My parents didn’t wear glasses either, but whenever Amber’s mom drove the 3 of us anywhere the first thing she did when she got behind the wheel of the car was to open her purse and take out a glasses case. She would then put her glasses on and return the empty case to her purse. When we got to where we were going, if she was coming in with us she would remove her glasses and carefully put them away before she left the car but if she was just dropping us off she would naturally leave her glasses on. Amber told us that her mom was a little bit nearsighted just like Ashley was but her eyes were not bad enough that she felt like she wanted to wear her glasses at all times. And she was convinced that wearing glasses all the time made your eyes even weaker. In grade 3 Amber had her eyes checked and it was discovered that she needed glasses. Amber told Ashley and me that her glasses needed to be just as strong as her mom’s were. Unlike her mom though, Amber was willing to wear her glasses all of the time. Now I felt jealous. Amber and Ashley wore glasses so I was the odd one in the crowd. My dad had his own business and he was away a lot of the time. My mom worked for a television station and she and some old guy read the news together every evening at suppertime and again at 11. I had a lady who came to the house every afternoon to be with me from the time I got home from school until my mom got back home after the evening news at 11. Of course I was in bed when mom got home. Mrs. Perez was a hefty Hispanic lady who didn’t speak English very well. I don’t know why I did it, but one night I told her that I was going to get glasses. Her only answer to that it was too bad for such a young bambino. Now I had a chance to wear glasses but in order to do so I needed a pair of glasses. My friend Ashley had just gotten a new pair. I had tried on her old pair when she first got them a year ago, but they were far too strong for me to wear and I took them off immediately. When I went to school the next day I asked Ashley if she would lend me her old glasses. She looked at me quizzically and said,” You tried them last year and they were way to strong. What makes you think you can wear them now?” “I told the lady who looks after me that I was going to get glasses so I want to see if I can wear them around the house.” I said. ‘The pair that I had 2 years ago will be a little weaker. Maybe they might be better for you to try.” Ashley said. “Sure, whatever, just as long as I can get a pair of glasses.” I replied. The next day Ashley brought 2 pairs of her old glasses to school. I put the pair she said was the weaker pair on and I discovered that they were still pretty strong. But the longer I left them on the better I could see through the lenses. After I had these glasses on for a while I asked Ashley if I could try to wear the pair she had worn up until a few days ago. There wasn’t much difference between the way I saw through her older glasses than there was with these glasses and I told Ashley that. ‘Take both pairs home then and see which pair you want to wear.” Ashley said. “Don’t you need your old pair as a spare pair?’ I asked. “Not this time. Mom bought me a 2 for one offer so I have another pair in my proper prescription.” Ashley replied. This happened at lunchtime and when school resumed after lunch I wore Ashley’s old glasses for the rest of the afternoon. I really don’t think that any of the teachers noticed that I was wearing glasses. By the time school was dismissed I was starting to feel a bit more comfortable wearing the stronger glasses. It would have been easier to have worn Amber’s glasses, but Amber only had one pair, so that wasn’t an option. I walked home after school and Mrs. Perez saw me wearing glasses. She said something in her own language and sort of shook her head as if to say too bad. I wore the glasses right up until bedtime and the only problem I had was that I had to pull them down on my nose a bit to read and to do my homework. My mom always comes into my room after she gets home and she kisses me goodnight, so I had to hide my glasses in the drawer of the nightstand. Mom is always asleep until long after I leave in the morning. She knows I am capable of making my own breakfast, and Mrs. Perez always has my lunch ready for me before she leaves the night before. I felt safe enough that morning to put the glasses on my face as soon as I got out of bed. I had been wearing Ashley’s glasses now full time for more than a week. One of my teachers had noticed that I was now wearing glasses, and other than him saying “nice glasses Alyssa” nothing else had been said. Daddy was flying back from London and I expected that he would be home when I got back from school. Also, mom had the weekend off and I figured that we would all be going somewhere as a family. But as I got to the point walking home where I normally would have to take off my glasses I saw that Daddy’s car was not in the driveway. I wondered what that meant, but I wasn’t brave enough to leave my glasses on my face while I investigated. When I took them off things were really blurry at first, but then after a while things just became a little blurry and I continued on home. I looked in the garage, but my mom’s car wasn’t there either, so I put my glasses back on and went inside. Mrs. Perez had been crying. I asked her where mom and dad were, and she handed me a note from my mom. I read the note and I discovered that my dad’s private jet had crashed on takeoff from the airport in London. Dad was in intensive care and it was touch and go as to whether he would live or not. Mom had taken a leave of absence and had already flown to England to be with him. Mrs. Perez was going to stay with me until Mom came home. It took 3 months for dad to recover enough to be moved to rehab in the US. Mom stayed in London with him for the entire 3 months. And I wore Ashley’s old glasses all of the time for the 3 months. Knowing that Mrs. Perez didn’t have much English made me bold enough to try something daring. By now I had decided that I loved wearing glasses and I didn’t want to give them up. I went to an optical store where I chose a new frame and had them make new lenses for the new frame that were the same prescription that was in Ashley’s old glasses. Now I had a receipt for glasses that had my name on it. I placed the receipt in with all the other bills that Mrs. Perez had paid from the money that mom had left her for household expenses. Also, I now knew how strong the lenses were in the glasses that I was wearing. They were right at -9.00D for each eye. I didn’t have any idea how much power my eyes actually needed though. I knew my own eyes were pretty bad now because things were really blurry when I took my glasses off. But I was also pretty sure that these glasses were still quite a bit stronger than I really needed. Mom was shocked when she saw me wearing my glasses. I made sure that she had taken Mrs. Perez home before I saw her so I could tell her what I wanted to on my own terms. When she asked me about my glasses I simply told her that I couldn’t read the board at school so I had my eyes checked and I needed glasses. Her only comment was that they looked pretty strong and I just replied that they seemed perfect to me. Nothing more was said. Mom went back to work and I was left to myself again. Now she got up every morning and drove me to school before she went to see dad in rehab. Then she would go to work, and she would not return home until after midnight. By now I no longer had to pull my glasses down my nose to be able to see up close, and I actually could bring my reading material up really close to my glasses and I was still able to see it very clearly. I knew that Ashley read everything fairly close to her face, so I made sure I was doing my reading at about the same distance. It was pretty neat having the three of us wearing glasses. Both Amber and Ashley were amazed that I could wear Ashley’s old glasses, and then when I got my new glasses they were surprised that I had been able to think of such a neat method of getting real glasses for myself. I had returned both pairs of Ashley’s old glasses once I got my own pair, even though Ashley told me not to bother. I just didn’t want to take the chance of having my mom ever find them in my room. Amber didn’t seem as happy as she usually was and after a few days Ashley and I managed to find out what was bothering her. She was jealous that Ashley and I both wore much stronger glasses than she did. Once this was out in the open Ashley was willing to give Amber the old glasses of hers that I had worn. But Amber was a little afraid to wear them because she thought her mom would find out. “So just wear them at school, and then when you go home you can wear your real glasses.” I suggested. That is what Amber then decided to do. It seemed to be a bit easier for Amber to become accustomed to wearing Ashley’s old glasses than it was for me. This was likely because Amber started off being a little nearsighted. It only took a month of her doing this before she began complaining that she couldn’t see very well when she put her own glasses on. I had a simple solution – tell her mom that she needed her eyes tested again. Amber got a new pair of glasses and the lenses in them were much stronger than the lenses that were in her old pair. But they were still only half of the prescription that was in Ashley’s old glasses. The three of us had a plan up our sleeves though. Before Amber went for her eye exam we had taken the lenses out of Ashley’s old glasses and had gone to an optical store to see if there was a frame that these lenses would fit in. We found a nice frame that Ashley’s old lenses fit perfectly into. When it was time for Amber to get her new glasses this is the frame that Amber chose to get her own new lenses in. When Amber came to school wearing her new glasses Ashley and I helped her switch lenses. Amber’s parents never noticed the switch, and now Amber, Ashley and I were indeed the “Three A’s”. Once a week when my mom had her day off she took me to visit my dad. He was getting better, and now he was able to walk by himself. Mom had told him that I needed glasses so it wasn’t a big surprise when he saw me wearing them. He said the same thing that mom had said – that they looked pretty strong. I replied, as I had to mom, that they didn’t look too strong from my side of the lens. His only comment was that if that was the case then I must need them. Ashley always had her eyes tested once a year, generally with a resulting increase in her prescription. This year was no exception and Ashley again ended up with yet another pair of new, stronger glasses. Now, when I tried on Ashley’s new glasses, they didn’t really seem too strong for me. And, when I took off her new glasses and I put my own on I discovered that things were not as clear with my own glasses as they had been with Ashley’s new ones. Since Ashley had again gotten a 2 for 1 special I got Ashley to lend me her spare pair so I could wear them for a few weeks before I told my mom that I needed stronger glasses. It was easy for me to wear Ashley’s new glasses most of the time because mom was back to work and dad was now going from rehab to his office most days. I could wear these glasses from the time I got up in the morning until I went to bed. By the end of a month I felt that Ashley’s new glasses were now almost perfect for my eyes. I hated it when I gave Ashley’s glasses back to her because I could not see very well with mine anymore. But it would only be for a few days because mom was taking me for my own eye exam the following morning. Most moms would take the time to go with their child for an eye exam. But all my mom had time to do was drop me off at the eye doctor. In one way that was good, because I could now tell the eye doctor that my reason for coming to him was that my old doctor had retired and I had worn glasses since forever. But he didn’t even ask. All he said was that he supposed I had worn glasses ever since I was very young. I told him that this was the case. He examined my eyes very carefully. He seemed to use a lot of different lenses in front of my eyes, and he kept asking me which one was better. I tried to pull my head back slightly and I think I managed a little. Then when he asked me which one was better – red or green I told him the red was much better. In the end I was given a prescription of -11.50D and I was a little shocked because Ashley’s newest glasses were only -11.00D. When I was finished I called my mom to tell her I was ready to be picked up. Her interview for the news that night was going to take longer than she had figured on so after I told her that I needed new glasses she suggested that I could order them from the doctor’s office. I chose a new frame, and I ordered a new pair that cost my mom almost $400.00. Then I called her again to tell her I needed her to pay for my exam and my new glasses. She was still busy so she gave the girl at the doctor’s office her credit card number and paid the bill. She asked me if I could take a cab back to school, so I did that. Amber and Ashley were very surprised when I told them that my new glasses were going to be even stronger than Ashley’s glasses were. It was going to take about a week before I got my own glasses and fortunately Ashley was willing to let me wear her spare glasses until my own were ready. The day that the doctor’s office called my mom called me at school and suggested that I could take a taxi to pick my new glasses up after school. I gave Ashley her old glasses back and I wore my old glasses for the taxi ride. I hated wearing them now, because everything was very blurry and I was really happy when the girl at the doctor’s office put my new glasses on my face. At this time we were all 11 years old and in grade 5. Amber had adapted nicely to wearing Ashley’s old lenses in her glasses but she now felt that her eyesight without glasses was as bad as she ever wanted it to be. Ashley and I didn’t even bother to try to talk Amber into wearing glasses that were any stronger and in fact I had decided that I wasn’t going to do anything further to make my own eyes even worse. I had actually frightened myself when I realized that I had managed to make my own eyes worse than Ashely’s were. But I didn’t have any problems wearing my glasses and I actually liked looking at myself in a mirror wearing the strong glasses I now needed. When it came time for Amber to have her next eye exam we had a little problem putting the old lenses back into her glasses frame. One lens went in like it was supposed to, but when we were putting the other one in the frame snapped right at the top of the bridge. We were all at Ashley’s house when this happened and no one knew what we should do until I suggested that we should put the other lenses back into the old frame of Ashley’s that we had taken them out of. Then Amber could tell her parents that she had broken her glasses and Ashley had lent her an old pair that she felt she could see fairly well with. This plan worked, and when Amber had her eyes checked the following day her eye doctor told her mom that the -9D prescription in Ashley’s old glasses was exactly what Amber now needed. Ashley, Amber and I were together all through high school. When we were 14 Ashley and I had the same -15D prescription. That year Amber had her prescription increase as well, and at this time she was wearing -12.50D. The year we all turned 15 was the year that Amber needed 3 increases in her prescription and she ended up with a stronger prescription than Ashley and I did. But the following year Ashley and I both had a couple of increases and I ended once again up with a stronger prescription than either of them had. By the time the three of us graduated from high school we were all wearing glasses that had identical -17.50D prescriptions and we traded glasses almost daily. With our graduation our ability to trade glasses was going to end. I was going on to take a course in journalism with the intention of following my mom into being a television news reporter. Mom told me that with me needing such strong glasses I would find it hard to be hired as an on screen news reader and that was the push I required to convince me that I needed to get contact lenses. Amber was going on to become a nurse, and it didn’t really matter to her if she wore glasses or not, as many of the other girls in her nursing class wore glasses. Ashley was taking a degree in science as she wanted to go into research and development. When she saw that I had gotten contacts she decided that she would get contacts as well, because it was a lot easier for her to do her necessary work with the microscopes when she was wearing contacts. After we started working we hardly ever saw each other. For the first year we made an effort to meet up for lunch once a month, but then Amber got engaged and we had to spend a bit more time with each other talking about the wedding plans. Ashley and I were going to be bridesmaids, and Amber’s younger sister was going to be the maid of honor. I had not worn my glasses out in public for the past year, but the three of us were going to order new glasses with identical frames for the wedding because Amber didn’t want to get contacts. Ashley and I hadn’t worn glasses since we had gotten contacts, and it was a little hard to get accustomed to the vision through our strong lenses. But after the wedding I decided that I liked wearing glasses, and if my job would not allow the wearing of glasses I would just have to find another job. The first night I showed up on air wearing my glasses I told the viewers that my contacts had been bothering me ,and since my eyesight was really bad I had no choice but to wear my glasses. I asked the viewers to tell the station if they liked me wearing glasses, or if I should have my eyes operated on to allow me to get rid of my glasses forever. Both the station and I were very surprised that this little informal poll showed that over 80% of my viewers wanted me to keep wearing glasses. After that there was no question about my having my eyes operated on, and I am probably the only online news reporter in the whole country that needs and wears -17.50D glasses on the air. Specs4ever June 2016