The Joy, Comfort, and Stress-Reducing Power of Bad Eyesight
Bad eyesight is often considered to be a problem that can’t be fixed, but that couldn’t be any further from the truth. Even if you lack 20/20 vision, there are ways to make yourself feel like your eyes are perfect. This is achieved by ensuring that your eyesight is as comfortable as possible and that you choose the best-fitting glasses and contact lenses to relieve your eyes.
I had bad eyesight all of my life. I went through a stage where I thought my vision was perfect, but it wasn’t until I started wearing the correct prescription eyeglasses at age 26 that I began to see things clearly. Here is the story of how I was able to make my eyesight as good as any other person’s:
I grew up in a tiny town, near a forest that overlooks a lake. My family had never gotten me glasses, so my vision was very poor. I could only see blurry shapes of things, and I had difficulty seeing what was on TV. My birthday was the day after Christmas, so I received a Nintendo 64 for my seventh birthday. I didn’t have any trouble seeing it or playing it because of my blurry vision, but the next year was when things got bad.
My uncle got me a Playstation game called Spyro: Year of the Dragon (I don’t even think it’s possible to play that game with 20/20 vision). I rented many games after that one; probably over ten times in one month. I eventually rented the Crash Bandicoot game, and I would play other games later on.
In order to see the screen, you need to have a lens in front of your eye; at first, I was using my family’s old black-rimmed glasses as a temporary solution. In the beginning, that worked well enough. I used those glasses for at least two years, maybe three years. If I didn’t watch TV or play video games for a while, those glasses helped me see again.
During the third year, I got a pair of Oakley frame sunglasses. I thought they were really cool-looking, and they seemed to work quite well. At first, I just had my prescription checked with a pair of “Cheeps,” which are old-fashioned photochromatic lenses that showed me the right image in a small green light. My eyes would look half green and half black for a few minutes each day.
After the “Cheap” lenses got dirty, I got another pair that was made by HOLMES Eyeglasses (the same company that makes Oakley Juliet frames). They seemed fine too; but after wearing them for two weeks, one lens started to peel off. I didn’t know if the lenses were supposed to peel off, so I just kept wearing them for another month.
That’s when I found a place on the Internet called “Coastal.com.” This is a famous online glasses store, and it has a store in Florida where they make prescription sunglasses. You can also get your eyes checked there, or you can upload a picture of yourself and receive a free estimate of how strong your prescription will be.
I read reviews of several companies that made prescription sunglasses for people with bad vision; but I was only able to find reviews for three companies: Zenni Optical, Coastal Optical, and i4eyesglasses.com. I chose Zenni Optical because it had the best customer service; I chose Coastal Optical because they only charged $20 for a checkup and three frames, and I chose i4eyesglasses.com because they made prescription sunglasses in my prescription.
The store in Florida confirmed my prescription by taking pictures of my eyes. Those photos were sent to the Zenni Optical offices in Hong Kong, and about a week later, I got three free samples: one pair of tortoiseshell frames with green-tinted lenses, another pair of black frames with grey lenses, and another pair of silver frames with green-tinted lenses.
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