I Was Six

Ever since I was young I’ve had to wear glasses. I broke them numerous times.I’ve dropped them in a lake while fishing. I’ve also smashed them against a pole multiple times, along with my face at recess in the 2nd grade at Libby Tozier School. When I was around six years old, I had to wear an eye patch. At first when my doctor had mentioned wearing an eye patch, I was totally out. My mom and dad tried to tell me that it was only going to help me. They also used to get some paint, and my mom would paint on some small little pieces of art on my patch, just to make me feel special and make it easier to want to wear it. My mom and my doctor said that I could go to a store and get a cool pirate patch, but it still didn’t persuade me. My doctor always tried to make me feel better. It still was not my cup of tea. I think the biggest mistake I’ve ever made is refusing to wear the eye patch. Not wearing it made my vision worse. At the time I thought it wouldn’t matter. I thought it was embarrassing too, looking back on it now it wasn’t that embarrassing but I was six and knew everything right?

I wasn’t a fan of glasses, and for that matter, the patch either. I thought it made me look like a little pirate and was just not a fan of it at all. It was sticky and would sometimes get stuck on my little eyebrow hairs. It was hard to get off and also left a sticky residue. It looked like a huge band-aid over my eye. I also had just a regular black patch, the one with the string all the way around your head, you know, the ones similar to a pirate. Also did not like this one, people would look at me and it would just make me uncomfortable.

I don’t know why but for some reason I remember this one little thing, so vividly, which is weird. Any who, I was sitting on my couch with my brother, of course with the eye patch on, and was coloring a bumble bee. I had a whole box of crayons and markers and at that point had just started. In a regular coloring book, and it was so hard to see, I remember just randomly closing one eye, just to try to color and imagine if I was blind. I’m not sure why I did this, it just seemed like a good idea. Obviously I couldn’t see out of that side, but I played it off like I could of course.

A little later on I had found out that I have astigmatism in my left eye. It was hard to adjust from seeing everything out of both eyes, to only being able to see out of one. I would have to cover only my right eye, which I had 20/15 in so it still wasn’t perfect, but my left eye was closer to 20/70. I only had to wear it for maybe a year, until I had just decided to not wear it at all. I tended to only wear it around the house, but occasionally I would wear it out.

The moral of the story is I wish I would’ve worn that eye patch growing up. My parents always told me it was for my own good. They were right. Nowadays I see 20/20 out of my right eye and 20/50 out of my left. Still not perfect, a hair better. If I could go back and do it all over again, I would wear that patch!

I didn’t realize how big of an impact it would have on my eyes when I was that young, but now I sure do. I figured it would just go away and my eyes would be ok. Flash forward, I didn’t listen to anyone who told me it would help and neglected my glasses as well. I only cared about looks. I wanted to look like other kids, and wearing a patch was not it. It taught me to just trust the process. Some things may make you uncomfortable and make you not want to do it, but it may be for the better. Just goes to show, I was six and I didn’t know everything.

“Autumn eye glasses – I” by grytr is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0