I have a confession to
make. Without my contacts, I wouldn’t be “me.” I would not be a functioning
member of society. It took being stranded without contacts or glasses for only
a day for me to realize that the vision help I take for granted is what makes
my whole life possible.
On the bleak,
unfortunate day where I simultaneously stepped on my glasses and ran out of
contacts, I couldn’t drive a car, leaving me stuck inside my house with not
many options. My daily routine was impossible; even my yoga practice I found
impossible without the visual aid of the DVD. I found myself getting
increasingly frustrated at being unable to puncture the blurry, hazy bubble I
was living in, no matter how hard I squinted. When they say everyone sees their
own different version of reality, I had the realization that I was excluded
from the real world that I knew existed, the one with crisp colors and details.
The thing is, there are
people that don’t realize that they are denied the world that others take for
granted being able to see. We might live in a powerful first-world country, but
there are not only children but adults who have never seen an eye doctor in
their lifetime. 15 of our states do not require any form of vision screenings
for children prior to starting school. The National Commission on Vision and
Health calls this “a public health emergency for millions of children.”
We’re all familiar with
Maslow’s pyramid by now—there are essential needs that need to be taken care of
before we can reach our full potential and achieve our greatest possible
breadths of self-esteem, creativity, intimacy, achievement, etc.
Every time a child
squints at the board, wondering why the words only reveal themselves to the rest
of the class, they are left behind with the dust of cloud left by the
chalkboard eraser. 80% of what a child learns in school is presented in a
visual form—that leaves a child’s chance of getting an A at 20%. The
frustration of not being able to see can even be misdiagnosed as a learning
disability such as ADD, as well as causing wrenching headaches.
When a child can’t see
the ball or the faraway motions of the opponents, their athletic performance doesn’t
stand a chance against the others. When they can’t read the facial expressions
of their peers, they miss out on an important part of normal socialization and
can’t be the best conversant, friend, and debater that they could be.
Undetected eye problems
are crippling. Not being able to see means leading half of what could be a
whole life. Donate to the American Optometric Association to give a child in
need the vision they desperately need to have a chance at life.
