I'm Matthew TW Huang and I have bad vision. Despite what my parents say, it's not because I played countless hours of video games too close to the television set. I received what seemed like a death sentence to wear glasses in the seventh grade. I was so worried how my peers would react to my extra set of eyes so I "discreetly" put them on only when the teacher wrote something on the chalkboard. One time I took them out of the box and dropped the box and glasses... Everyone stared for eternity.
Thankfully, the younger generations are much more tolerant so this may be less of an issue. Glasses have become a sort of a fashion statement. It's come to the point where people who don't need glasses are wearing them without lenses. Craziness. For me, most it them I found them to be extra responsibility as I tended to bend and break them while playing (read getting beat up) with my brother.
I have always wonder if I had terrible vision my entire life or developed it. I know it started in fourth grade at the latest where I had to ask to come to the front of the room to copy what was on the board. Would I be better at sports or have more grade school knowledge if I corrected my vision early? I guess we may never know.
Yesterday I had my annual eye exam. (I find it odd that people with perfect vision don't go to check their eyes. I'm so jealous of those people.) The good news is that my prescription hasn't changed. The bad news is that my eyes are prematurely expecting the puff test, making it nearly impossible to get even the simplest of tasks done. The optical assistant figure out how to take pictures of my retinas without taking over 20 shots. She took them directly after a blink; I fully expect my eyes to adapt next year and refuse to open when I sit down next to the machine.