4 - Diego B: Seeing Life Through A New Lens

Glasses are strange. I don’t hate to wear them or anything, but, and especially during the pandemic, they’ve always felt strange on my skin. I don’t know whether it’s the occasional bump I feel on my nose every fifteen seconds in public or the dampness I see after I take a long walk, but it always feels strange walking around in them. I received my first pair of glasses in the seventh grade because I was always in the very back of the classroom and I couldn’t see the whiteboard. With my glasses, at least I can read labels afar in the classroom or on the aisles in the store, which I always needed to walk to, only for me to walk away again because the label was not what I wanted. It’s safe to say that I can see the whiteboard better now, but I don’t know if my face feels any better now. Walking with glasses is especially obnoxious in my opinion, in large part attributed to my mask, an issue that I am certain every wearer of glasses experiences. In the winter, in particular, I can actually see better without my glasses sometimes than with them because of how damp my vision is while they are worn. Looking through damp glasses is like looking through a window on a rainy day adjacent to a homely fireplace, except that the fireplace has engulfed nearly my entire house in flames and smoke because the breath from my mouth is so warm. I don’t hate wearing glasses, though, and at least I can see my surroundings better, even if my mouth feels as hot as a furnace sometimes. I mean, at least I’m not wearing contact lenses. (287 words)