From childhood, I was that classic bookish kid with glasses. I didn’t have those super thick bottle-bottom lenses, but my eyesight was pretty weak. I first noticed it in fifth grade, and when we went to the eye doctor, I remember he wasn’t exactly warm and friendly.

When he asked me to read the chart and I couldn’t make out the letters, he snapped impatiently, “Wow, your eyes are in really bad shape!”

 Then he told my dad that both eyes were already at minus one. I had no idea what that meant. I’m sure you’ve all heard that famous story about “seeing the leaves” for the first time. Well, I lived it—and it was absolutely magical.

I still remember the exact moment I put on my first pair of glasses. I was sitting on our Persian rug when my dad handed them to me. The second I slipped them on, the flowers in the rug suddenly burst into this incredible, vivid glow. The fact that I can still recall that moment so clearly after more than thirty years says everything about how special it was.

Anyway, wearing glasses became a part of who I was—and I was always okay with it. I was never like those girls who saw glasses as a hassle or felt self-conscious about looking “nerdy.” But the story didn’t end there.

Every year, my prescription got worse by at least one or two diopters. In just a few years, it climbed to around minus eight, and I was left drowning in anxiety. I kept telling myself: If this keeps going, sooner or later I’ll go blind.

Every few months, when I’d go for a check-up and get a stronger prescription, it turned into this little ritual of self-pity and sadness.

It might sound childish now, but I really loved my eyes. I didn’t want to lose the beauty of the world, its sparkle, its colors.

These days, years after my laser surgery, I hardly even wear sunglasses. I no longer feel those old worries and fears the same way, but I still remember them.

They say life has different chapters. That was one of mine. Now I’m in another one, with its own worries and restlessness. This chapter will turn the page too… I hope…