On Saturday we deemed him officially mobile. What no one ever tells you is that these milestones (sitting up, crawling, walking I expect) are never singular events. They are gradual changes. It is a fallacy to write “the date” that these happened in a baby book. Instead you should write the two-week window in which it happened.
Come to think of it, that’s also true for “the due date.” Instead it should be “the due month.”
It’s been a long time since I wrote a blog post. But it’s been an incredibly busy year so that’s my excuse and I’m sticking to it. However that busy-ness is all the more reason I should be writing posts. So here goes.
This morning I had an evaluation for Lasik treatment. It turns out I’m a candidate for the procedure. And it turns out it would cost $4400. I expected the kinda-schlocky “marketing” of the procedure. I expected the cost. I expected the explanations of how the eye works and what tests they go through to ensure I’m a candidate.
I didn’t expect to find myself crying in the parking lot afterwards.
I can only focus about 2+ inches in front of my face without eyewear. I’ve had corrective eyewear for as long as I can remember. I got glasses in 1st grade. When I went to school the next day, one of my classmates thought I was a new student because she didn’t recognize me with glasses. My prescription degraded at an alarming rate and in 6th grade I got rigid gas permeable contact lenses. I wore those every day until the last few years when I went back to glasses.
I think what triggered my crying in the parking lot was the realization that poor vision has been part of my identity for all of my growing up years. All my school pictures in elementary school show me with very nerdy four-eyes. When I got contacts I felt cooler and less nerdy during my junior high and teen years. I was one of the first kids to get glasses in elementary school and I was definitely the first kid to get contacts.
I don’t know if I’ll have it done anytime soon or if at all. It’s kinda scary to have someone messing around with your cornea. And there are lots of spending priorities already at our house. But it may be even a bigger fear to let go of that piece of my identity and leave it behind forever.
It may also be incredibly liberating.