10 Questions People Who Wear Glasses Are Tired Of Hearing (With Answers)

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We get it. We are everywhere. We are type of people you meet on the plane, subway, or at the mall. We pull off various shapes, sizes, colors, even brands, and we belong to the population of the unlucky ones who need second pair of eyes to survive our day-to-day shenanigans. We also get you, people who have better vision than us, who ask us questions we have fully accepted, outgrown, and managed to answer. Some are funny. Some are just like “WTF.”

1. “Are those real glasses?”

Seriously this is the most “WTF” moment you will encounter almost everywhere. People will try to either make fun of your specs or really try to ask you this question. You have the right whether to answer or just stare at them until they are out of sight.

2. “Since when did you start wearing glasses?”

This is one of the most common conversation openers with strangers and even with friends. This gets you going, explaining scientific terms, medications, possible cures, even dig up to brands of frames you trust. All these things that make you the star of the conversation – enjoy it.

3. “But sometimes you don’t wear eyeglasses, right? Why aren’t you wearing glasses now?”

We’ll wear it when our eyes hurt after constant blinking, and/or squinting. We just can’t fake it! Help! We need our specs!

4. “Astigma-what? Isn’t that near-sightedness, or far-sightedness?”

There are a lot of eye problems and some are curable via prescription glasses, or some surgery. Cataract doesn’t count, though. This time, you get to let them understand that eye problems are a serious matter.

5. “Why not try laser surgery?”

Some laser surgeries really cure eye problems, which is of course the end-goal of the operation. But it is (1) expensive, (2) there are times when these surgeries fail to deliver, which will just make you resort to wearing eyeglasses.

6. “You must be smart, eh?”

The usual impression of people to those around us is that, we are smart. Eyeglasses have gained the notion that eyewear make people appear smart, well-read, and Einstein-ish. (I wish I was.) However, not all who wear glasses are smart. And not all smart people wear glasses. We just had a lot of things going on in our genes and in the environment that made us wear these specs.

7. “You must have strained your eyes too much on reading and staying up late! That’s why!”

Nah. Not even close. Reading and staying up late does not make one’s eyesight deteriorate. The dark usually strains the eyes but it has no direct relationship with the degeneration of the macula or even the optic nerves surrounding our eyeballs. Besides, who doesn’t want to stay up late reading a great book?

8. “Why don’t you try contact lenses?”

Contact lenses are difficult to manage. That is, if you fully have the awareness that you need to make it wet and make sure you don’t wipe your eyes or else it will scratch your cornea. You know the drill. Science tells us not to put anything foreign to our eyes. Hence, the specs.

9. “Can you read this? Is this three, or four? Huh?”

Bullies. They transcend even to the meanest person in your office, or some random d-bag on the street, trying to make fun of you and your condition. There will be times you want to just shrug it off and move on, but it is undeniably insensitive.

10. “Can you see then without your specs on?”

It depends. There are really those people who have eye grade that is higher than anyone else. Some have -600 eye grade, some have -300 or so. And it is one of the most insensitive questions you might not want to ask to a person wearing eyeglasses. It is just plain bad. But we all managed to answer those questions. It’s not bad at all.