Corrective Lenses

I'm relatively lucky. I didn't need corrective lenses until I was in high school. My wife was in glasses at five.

And the thing about eyes is this: if you need corrective lenses, you have three options, none of which is good.

You could go without and be blind. For some people, it means reading at arm's length or squinting at books. For others, it means riding public transportation because they can't drive.

You could get glasses which sit on your face and collect dust. They scratch easily and make photography difficult. And it's relatively easy to get them knocked off your face.

You could get contact lenses which require daily cleaning and - quite literally - poking yourself in the eye every time you try to put them in or take them out. And that's operating under the assumption that they fit correctly.

It's a pain. And changing from one to the other is disorienting and weird, so - unless you have someone who can drive for you - you're pretty much stuck at home until you adapt. And taking your contacts off in the evenings and switching to glasses is unwise at best, as you'll spend your evening miscalculating distances and stumbling over things.