I had my eye exam yesterday, after about 3 years. The last time I had one, I was fitted with a pair of eyeglasses for the first time in my life. And it was good. I had my eyes examined because I started to miss my bus because I couldn't clearly read the bus number, and because I had hard time judging the distance to curbs when making left turns while driving. Failing to read street names and numbers, while others could clearly do so was also another reason.
On my way home wearing my first pair of glasses, I was awed by the level of detail I was able to see. I could now read, not only the letters and the numbers on a license plate of a car moving away from the bus I'm on, I could also read the smaller letters on the license plate edge -- those letters that usually advertise the car dealership from which the car was bought, etc. My delight was such that I questioned if the level of detail that I was able to visually perceive my surrounding was normal. Could I be walking with a binocular on?
My trip yesterday was long overdue, as the last eye physician had asked me to see another eye physician within a year the latest. In addition to the regular eye exam, I am also being trained to use contact lenses. I definitely didn't foresee how challenging it would be to put those delicate lenses into an even more delicate part of the body. I was never brave enough to touch any part of my eyeball with my fingers or any other object, and so it was expected that I would never be brave enough to put a lens on it. It must have taken me at least a half hour for each of the two trials that I had to do before I left the eye-doctor's office.
Today, I put my contacts on, with some, but less challenge. Aside from the frustration of putting them on, what I found surprising was the level of detail that I was able to see things with. Again. This time, looking down from the window of the kitchen in my high-rise apartment, I was able to see things that I didn't see yesterday. This is not because I paid more conscious attention today than I did yesterday. My view yesterday was deliberate, too, as I have just moved in to the place and I have been introducing myself to the new view from my daily-to-be standing location. At a long distance, I could see that there was a highway-like road with big, green signs hanging. I could see the cars speeding there, and I can almost read what the signs said, from a distance that I would have thought was amazing just yesterday. Cars and were also moving on a street that seems to join the highway, also at a distance that I never saw cars just yesterday. What's more, I can even see the colours of the window curtains of the building next to mine.
Despite the challenges of putting them on, contact lenses and my newly corrected vision has been a pleasurable change.
