I was in 5th grade when I realized I couldn’t clearly see the board, it was blurry. Maybe it was before I was in 5th, but I can’t remember. I thought I was blind or something. I didn’t know what blind really meant at the time and have never heard of the word nearsighted. English wasn’t my thing and I didn’t really know a lot of words. Math was the only thing I was decent at. I didn’t think it mattered much until I got called on. I sat in the far back so I obviously couldn’t see the board. It was dead silence and everyone was staring at me while I looked back and forth between my desk and the board.
“Uhhh, I don’t know,” I said.
It was embarrassing and I just stared down at my desk the whole time while the teacher was solving the problem. I hated being called on, unless I was confident in my answer. I didn’t tell my mom nor my teacher that I couldn’t see the board. I was really shy when I was forced to transfer into an English class in 3rd grade. I started closing my eyes a bit when trying to see the board. It helped with my eyesight, but the board was still blurry. I knew I needed to get glasses, but I never told my mom.
In middle school I had to go to the doctor to take the Tdap shot. I had no idea what it was called at that time and thought it was unnecessary. After taking the shot, I got to take the eyesight test. I closed one eye and then the other.
“V, K, W, M”, I said. I actually don’t remember what letters I was saying, but my eyesight was really, really bad. I’m not even joking. I was basically just guessing and I couldn’t even see the first letter.
My mom looked confused. “You aren’t saying any of them correctly,” she said in hmong. That's when she realized I couldn’t see far and I finally got glasses. I didn’t get the glasses until 3 months later. Although I got glasses I still didn’t wear them. It was in the middle of December so I thought it would be too awkward if I randomly started wearing glasses so I just kept them inside my backpack. I didn’t wear it in 8th grade either. It really affected my grades and I was averaging a 2.5 gpa. PE was the only class I was doing well in. I was athletic for someone who just played games all day.
I finally started using my glasses in high school, but only for half the classes. I wouldn’t put them on. Instead I would just hold them up for a couple of seconds and put them away after. I was finally comfortable enough to wear them in 11th grade.
Honestly I should’ve just told my mom that I needed glasses and should've just worn them after I got them. I should've been afraid to wear them since a ton of people do. It really had a huge impact on my learning experiences. Now that I’m older, I can’t learn much since I’m lazy and have a low attention span.