Live and Learn

I can not remember exactly when I started having difficulty with my vision. All I know was how hard it was then to enjoy watching the shows from our black and white television without sitting very close to the screen.
There was this show called Super Laff-In which had Ramon Zamora, June Keithley and a host of other funny guys like Tange. It was directed by Rolly Grande. This was a very funny show. It actually made Ramon Zamora an overnight sensation.
Indeed, I never would want to miss this show. So I would have to sit close to the screen to enjoy it. Mama thought I was just an eager beaver. I just told her I could not see the actors. The screen was just too hazy.
She eventually made an appointment with an EENT - Dr. Conrado Banzon. He was my first eye doctor. When all was said and done, he prescribed my very first eyeglasses.
During those days if a very young kid was wearing glasses, then he/she must be pretty smart since he/she spends so much time reading and studying to the point her vision just got blurred.
Well, the premise can be false but the conclusion was just right. I indeed spent so much time reading my Nancy Drew books then. I remember spending my hard earned money to buy my Nancy Drew or Dana Girls Books at Alemar's.
The eyeglasses were picked up and fitted. Voila!! A whole new world of clarity. Malinaw na malinaw talaga. I wore these to school. I could read my teacher's scribbles on the blackboard. I was thrilled. I could watch more Super Laff-In.
The kids in my class, including my playmates, were not very nice about it though. I was teased. I was called " apat ang mata". I was relegated to the sidelines during patintero. A specifi group of grade school boys would taunt me everytime the school bus would pass them by.
I resorted to different tricks. I pretended to be " napuwing" so I would have to take my glasses off everytime the school bus would pass by these young boys. I deliberately would take my glasses off during playtime. Of course the team I am affiliated to would lose since one of their team mates was incapacitated - that was me.
Everytime we go home to Agno & we have our picnics at Sabangan, these pesky glasses get wet since I swam with it. To top it all, these were the least fashionable kind since the glasses itself were thick so those ugly frames were used to accomodate the thick lenses.
I really looked like a combined dork and geek in high school. The Ateneans will not give me a second look (ang lahat ay hindi napapalingon) since I was not funky at all.
But miracles do happen. Dr. Banzon eventually prescribed my first contact lenses. Won't these contacts go deep inside your eyefolds and end up inside your head?
Now I can wear non-graded sunglasses. I can also put mascara on & all the eyeshadows I can apply on my eyelids. Best - I am not called apat ang mata anymore.
This particular time in my growing up years really stayed in my memory. It was traumatic enough that I can not see just like the rest of the kids. What was worst was my handicap became the butt of joke of the other children. Lessons in life taught at an early age.