No people or events in this story are real. I was born in 1960 and growing up in that era was different from today. At age 12 a teacher noticed I was having trouble taking notes off the board so a trip to the Optometrist and glasses followed. I hated glasses and only wore them when I had to see something far away. By age 14 I realized I needed to wear glasses all the time but there was a problem. My Mom who wore thick Myopic glasses says being forced to wear them as a kid made her eyes worse. I literally had to sneak my glasses out of the house at times for such things as going to movies and sporting events. Even though I still hated glasses I realized I needed them full time. I started smoking cigarettes socially at age 13 and by 14 I was smoking 10 or 12 a day still being careful to hide it from my parents even though they both smoked. I got caught in the act of smoking by my Dad at 15 and his reaction was about as tame as it gets. My Dad said the question is not if but when you would start smoking and I was allowed to smoke at home and my high school had a smoking area which was common in the 70’s I also started smoking pot and drinking around age 15 but I did a good job of hiding it from my parents. I got my license and a car at age 16 but was very careful not to drive while drinking or high and was still doing well in school. I was still only wearing glasses out of the house and if my Mom caught me wearing them she made me take them off if I wasn’t looking at something far away even though my prescription was a -2.50 and -3.25. My Optometrist advised full time wear from my second pair of glasses but my Mom was very stubborn on the subject. Then it happened on my 17th birthday. I was caught by the police drunk and spent the night in the adult jail. What a way to spend the night of your birthday. My parents furious and rightfully so came down hard on me taking my car for a month and grounding me. I went before the judge an older man and was told if I stayed clean and in school the charged would be expunged on my 18th birthday and I did both still only smoking cigarettes. I had started working in fast food and on my 18th birthday since I had been clean for a year my car was put in my name with 6 months of insurance paid. By now I was looking at colleges and picked a good one within a 30 minutes of home. I graduated in 3 1/2 years and then needed to decide what to do. I was still working fast food all thru college and was without debt due to what my parents and I paid. This wouldn’t happen today but the college had a tradition of graduating males would get together and smoke a cigar after the ceremony. I had never smoked a cigar before and it made me sick. That was the day I decided to quit smoking cigarettes so I gradually cut down until I quit about 6 months later. I had been working in the insurance business after college but decided that wasn’t for me. A year and a half after graduating college I enrolled in school to become an Optometrist. Due to working in fast food at night it took an extra year to become a full fledged Optometrist. My Dad had passed away by then but I showed my Mom the studies showing that wearing glasses too much does not make your vision worse. Today I am a practicing Optometrist in a big practice mainly doing kids and teenage exams. With my experience with drinking and pot neither of which I had done since my 17th birthday if a teenager comes to me I can tell if they are on drugs or drinking. Oh by the way once I turned 18 told my Mom I was going to wear my glasses all the time.