Making a spectacle of myself

Sadly, mine look nowhere near as cool as these.


A new branch of [well-known optical emporium] has just opened up the road from the office and, mindful of the fact that I’ve regularly had to squint to read text on my TV such as teletext, subtitles on foreign films etc (oh alright, it’s usually the scores on Sky Sports) for a while now, I took advantage of their aggressively-marketed free eye test offer. Lo and behold, I am now the owner of two brand-new pairs of glasses.


Leaving aside the commercial considerations of the said opticians (in possible borderline cases such as mine where my eyes clearly aren’t that bad, do they prescribe specs anyway in order to gain customers?), I’m now adjusting to the fact that I’ll be spending large portions of my life with bits of glass and metal on my face. Things look subtly different when I put them on. It’s a very strange sensation.


I also felt even more self-conscious than usual when I put them on in the office for the first time this morning. Would people point and laugh, or worse, try and hide their horrified stares? Turns out I needn’t have worried - I’ve been here an hour now and nobody has said a word.


That’s the thing with being ridiculously self-conscious. You’re reluctant to open up because you imagine that you’re being constantly scrutinised, when the reality is that most people don’t even notice a major change in your physical appearance. Clearly I should stop caring about what others think, lose my inhibitions and chat to everyone I meet!


Well, maybe tomorrow.

Comments

melbourne dreaming said…
It is weird, isn't it? Everyone noticed mine straight away, but that's probably because I work with all girls and my specs are bright blue!

I do feel a little bit of affinity with other glasses-wearers now though, it's like a secret club :)
5:46 pm
benson_79 said…
People did notice eventually, to be fair. It still feels very odd wearing them, though I do possibly look a tad more sophisticated...
10:23 pm
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