Eyesight on The Eye

Eyesight issues can be exasperating, especially at school.

More stories from Justine Nguyen

Sibling Tingz
May 21, 2019
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Megan Mills (‘20) gets ready for a gruelling 46 minutes of AP Lang with her trendy glasses.

Perfect vision is unfortunately not a gift that every student has. The daily morning task of searching for glasses may be a struggle some students can understand.

Out of myopia (nearsightedness), hyperopia (farsightedness), astigmatism, and other eye problems, myopia is the most common. Jennifer Young (‘20) knows a lot about being nearsighted. “I’m nearsighted in both eyes, and I can’t see without my contacts or glasses on,” Young said. “My prescription is -9.25 in the right and -5.75 in the left. I can’t see the big ‘E’ on the eye exam chart, to give a little perspective of what my vision’s like.”

However, eyesight problems can be a troublesome annoyance, especially in school settings. “Since I can’t see without my contacts or glasses on,” Young said, “I can’t do anything if I run out of contacts or my glasses break. One time at school, my contacts decided to rip in my eye, so I had to take them out. I couldn’t see the board for any of my classes that day.”

Even without malfunctioning eyewear or contact lenses, sitting in the back of a classroom might contribute to difficulty in reading the board. “Sometimes, I don’t know what teachers write on the board when I’m sitting in the back,” Noor Awwad (‘20) said, “and I have trouble following the lines.”

If students can’t see the board from where they are sitting, teachers will often move them closer to the front if informed.

The two most common choices to correct vision are glasses and contact lenses. Some students may prefer glasses, while others prefer contacts. Pros and cons come along with both of these vision correctors.

Micah Grayon (‘20) said she personally preferred glasses for the reason that, “It’s easier for me to wear glasses than to go through wearing contacts.Putting them in and taking them out is too much work. Plus, you only need one pair of glasses.”

On the other hand, Young said she’d rather wear contact lenses. “I definitely prefer contacts because I feel like they enable me to see better since there’s no smudges, no dust, and if it’s raining I won’t get rain on my glasses,” Young said. “They don’t slip down my nose like glasses do either.”

Occasionally, students may not know when to see an eye doctor, which can cause unnecessary inconvenience if they don’t go get their eyes checked. Often, a person will not be able to tell their vision is worsening because it doesn’t just happen overnight; it happens over a period of time. Annual or biennial eye exams are recommended in order to stay up to date on eyesight so that eye problems don’t go unseen.

Also, FBLA is doing a sunglasses and reading glasses drive for Global Glasses. If you have any old reading glasses or sunglasses that you would like to donate, there are labelled boxes in rooms 11-201, 4-115, 19-213, 19-223, and the office that you can drop them in.