Here's what I wrote about it in my old Hilo Days website.
A Spectacle
All through eighth grade, and especially during the
preceding summer, my eyesight was getting worse. Nobody knew it except me.
Every year, we would take those eye-screening tests, the
ones with the big E at the top, progressively getting smaller until you could
hardly read the ones on the bottom.
If the E pointed to the right, you'd point to the right. If
the E pointed upward, you'd point upward, and so forth and so on until you
couldn't make out which way the E was pointing.
When we took the test in the eighth grade, I memorized
the positions and faked it on the test. Of course, I had problems all year. So
when it came time to test in the ninth grade, I cinched up my belt and finally
admitted that I needed glasses.
And in the process, surprised everyone when I gave up on
the third row.
Two things I remember about the eyeglass-fitting process:
First, the eye drops the doctor used dilated my pupils and the lights bothered
my eyes all day.
And second, when I put on my glasses for the first time a
few days later, everything seemed to sparkle — reds were redder, blues were
bluer, and everything seemed so crisp and bright. It was as though the world
had turned on the lights just for me. What a jerk I was not to have taken
advantage of modern eye-care.
Of course, everyone thought I immediately looked studious
(remember, they already thought I was smart). I had expected an onslaught of
"Four Eyes" jokes; they never came. What a jerk I had been.
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