By the end of my senior year of high school I had noticed that even with my contacts in I was having a bit of trouble seeing clearly. My annual eye doctor appointment confirmed my suspicion when I was now prescribed a prescription of -6.50 in my right eye and -6.00 in my left. I was still absolutely determined not to get glasses. At this appointment, my eye doctor finally said that I needed to get glasses in addition to my contacts. I agreed and said that I would look online for some cheap pairs so I could save money as I was not planning to wear them very often. When I got home I went online and took a look at some frames using virtual try-on features. I hated how I looked so I decided to screw it and just stick to contacts.
As the summer began, preparations for college began too. Mia and I had broken up because she was going to school in California, and I was going to a small engineering school in Maine about 5 hours away from my home in New York State. Soon classes began and I moved into my dorm. I met a bunch of friends on my floor and I was beginning to take to liking my new life of independence away from home.
I had always been against wearing my contacts in the shower, so quickly came up with a routine to avoid being bare eyed as much as possible. With a prescription of -6.50 and -6.00 I really didn’t have any option. Some days I would shower in the morning, other days at night. On days when I showered at night, I would complete my nightly hygiene routine and then right before getting in the shower, I would take out my contacts. In the shower I had a system of different brightly colored bottles for my different soaps so I knew which was which. When I was done with my shower I would grab my towel and walk back to my room. My friends knew that if they saw me walking from the bathroom to my room at night with a towel around my waist there was no use in saying hello because I wouldn’t be able to see them.
On the days when I showered in the morning, I would wake up and immediately grab my stuff and head to the bathroom to shower. One morning, my first class was cancelled so I was able to sleep in an extra hour. When my new alarm went off, I woke up and grabbed my shower stuff, and two new contact lenses and headed to the bathroom. I set the contacts on the counter and popped into the shower. When I got out, I reached for the blister packs but found nothing. While I don’t know for sure, I suspect the cleaners must of thought they were an old set of lens cases and threw them out. This was no issue, I blindly made it back to my room and grabbed another set of lenses to put in. Right then Left, my contacts were in and I could see again. Much better.
The rest of my freshman year at college was pretty uneventful. I started dating a girl named Hailie. Hailie was really hot, and we would often have to lock my roommate out of the room so we could have sex. At the end of the Spring semester I had noticed a change in my vision for the first time in a while, so being the broke college student I was I decided to skip my yearly eye exam. Right before my prescription expired, I ordered another 9 months of contacts which would last me until the end of the Fall semester of my sophomore year.
Soon summer had come to and end and we were back at school. I had a new roommate named Max, and Hailie and I were still going out. Max was also dating someone so he didn’t mind giving me and Hailie our space as long as I gave him his when he had his girl over.
Max was a really cool dude and soon we became good friends. He also wore contacts, in fact they were the same brand as mine, only his were not as strong as mine. He only required a -3.50 in both eyes to see clearly. Unlike me, Max also had a pair of glasses in addition to a backup pair he kept in his backpack should his contacts start bothering him during lecture. He thought it was crazy that I didn’t have a pair of glasses given my eyesight was almost twice as bad as his. Max was a TV watcher so occasionally before going to bed he would turn on the TV to something I wanted to watch. Usually this would happen after I had showered so there was no way in hell I would be able to see the tv. At this point he would usually offer me to borrow his backup pair of glasses which let me see the screen a bit better, but not much considering the different strengths of our eyes. Occasionally I would take out my phone and see how I looked wearing them, but I hated it!
The rest of that semester was fairly uneventful until a comedy of errors left me stranded at school, and inevitably led me to ordering the first pair of glasses I would actually use [For this part of the story, I will be taking off my glasses to write so I apologize for any typos, I can’t see what I am writing, even with everything at the largest size unless I bring my face 2 inches from the screen].
It was nearing final exam times and I had been super busy studying. The comedy of errors all started about I week before exams were set to begin. Let me preface the story by saying that through my 6, nearly 7 years of wearing contacts I had never misused them, never even once and I was not planning on starting animi soon. Any-who about a week before my first exam I noticed that my contact boxes were a bit light so I took the remaining lenses out to count the number of lenses I had remaining. There were 3 strips left for each eye. I put one for each into my shower caddy a I usually did and then looked at my watch and realized I was late for class. In a hurry, I rushed out of the door and luckily got to class right on time.
Little did I know, Max had just gotten a phone call from his sister saying that their mom was in a car crash and was in critical condition. Max hastily packed up his things for the semester and in doing so, accidentally packed the contacts I had left on the dresser. We both kept our lens boxes close to each other for some reason, and in the rush of the moment coupled with the fact that his eyes are the same prescription and therefore is not in the habit of checking the power of the lens before opening it, packed all of his and my contact lenses and got in his car and drove home, about 4 hours away in Massachusetts. When he got home he found that his mom was okay, only suffering some minor injuries. He called his professors and they let him take his exams over the computer so that he could be home to help out with his little sisters. The only issue with all this was that I was now left with only 5 days of contacts, and no valid prescription to reorder.
Even worse was I didn’t realize it until it was too late. This mistaken lens incident happened on Sunday. My last final exam was on Thursday and I was planning on driving home to New York on Friday in an attempt to beat the weekend and holiday traffic. When Friday came around and I reached into my box of contacts and found it empty I was screwed. Not only did I have bad vision but I had horrible vision. Without my contacts I could only see 2 inches in front of me, there was no way I could get to my car in the parking lot without hurting myself, let alone drive 5 hours home. I quickly called Hailie in a panic. Being a contact lens wearer herself she suggested we go to a local eye doctor and see if they could give me a few pairs of trial contacts to wear until I could get a proper eye exam and new supply of lenses. Being in the middle of nowhere, there was only 1 optical store within 50 miles of the college. Hailie drove me in my car to the shop.
When we got to the shop I wasn’t given good news. It was already hard enough to find my way through the door without my contacts but to be given bad news, that was not something I was ready for. When we got inside I explained to the lady that my contacts had accidentally been taken by roommate and I didn’t have a pair of glasses. I had a copy of my expired prescription on my phone to prove the power I needed but that still didn’t help. She explained that the doctor who had worked in the shop had just retired and sold his practice to a new doctor who was going to be starting in a month. She said that all the contacts the previous doctor had in stock had been sold off so as much as she wanted to help, couldn’t offer me any lenses to tide me over until I got a proper supply again.
I asked how long it would take to get a pair of glasses made and she said that since they don’t make the lenses in house it would take 2-3 weeks for my glasses to arrive. I was so upset. Hailie and I drove back to campus and went back to my room. She offered me a couple of pairs of her contacts but with a prescription of -1.00 in both eyes it was not going to make a difference to my vision. Unfortunately, Hailie had to leave campus that afternoon in order to not miss her flight out fo the regional airport to her hometown in Ohio.
This left me all alone at school, blind as a bat. I went online to try and find a solution, and ended up deciding I had to just bite the bullet and order a pair of glasses. The trouble was I couldn’t see well enough to see how I looked in the virtual try-ons because I had to get my face so close to the screen in order to see it. I found a cheap pair and entered my prescription and when to check out. Even with the fastest shipping time, my glasses wouldn’t arrive for 5 days due to the location of the school and the holiday season. I was stranded at school, blind. I couldn’t watch TV, play video games or do anything really without my contacts. I just sat in my room and thought, was bored, and did absolutely nothing. At meals I would blindly make my way down to the dining hall where I would randomly take food without knowing what it was since I couldn’t see it. It really was the worst week of my life.
On Wednesday I received an email from the front desk that I had a package waiting for me. I rushed down to go pick it up. Without skipping a beat I opened the package and put on the glasses I had ordered. The girl at the desk was puzzled, your glasses look so strong why aren’t you wearing some already? I explained everything that had happened, and she told me well you look hot wearing glasses. I explained that I had a girlfriend and the front desk girl backed off. I went up to my room, and looked at myself in the mirror. I couldn’t believe how strong my glasses looked, I hated it! I knew there was no other option. What I had not taken into account though was the Minification affect found on higher prescription nearsighted lenses. Since I had always worn contacts I had never experienced it so I got a bit dizzy while trying to walk around. I though at this point that it might be best if I waited a day to get used to wearing glasses before embarking on a 5 hour drive.
Over the course of the day I kept seeing myself in the mirror and by the end of it I had actually gotten used to myself wearing glasses. Dare I say, I kind of liked it. If only I hadn’t been so vain about wearing glasses, maybe all this wouldn’t have happened and I would have been home at the start of my winter vacation. I guess you live and learn.
The end.
Thank you for reading my first three part story. I hope you enjoyed it. If anything like what happened to Timmy happened to you or someone you know share them below. Also feel free to share a time where any kind of vanity got in the way or you and your vision. As more stories pop into my head I will write them, but for now THE END!
https://vision-and-spex.com/timmy-s-vanity-part-3-t1824.html