When I first heard of this contest, I didn’t know what to think. I mean sure when I look through my window I see naked trees about to blossom and boring houses that look all the same. To be perfectly honest, I never look outside my window, I simply just go outside to the real world instead of having to look out from my window. But then all of this got me thinking, I’m always looking through a window. I guess you’d call having glasses some sort of window, it’s glass, and I’m looking through it so I think it counts. It’s so weird to me that I have to wear something just to see what everyone else can see. Eyesight, a necessity but a privilege, I somehow get so very jealous of those who don’t need glasses. Maybe it’s because they don’t have to worry about the extra pay, or laying on your side in bed and your glasses flip up, or that they don’t have to worry about their glasses getting foggy from the masks, the list goes on. But then I remember that I’m able to see in two ways, the way almost everyone sees and what I see. Sure it’s mostly blurring of shapes and colors that I try to make sense of but I think it’s a bit more than that. Being able to see the way I was born is somewhat of a gift. It means I’m able to see something no one else can. Almost every time someone puts on my glasses, the first thing they will say is “wow Grace you’re really blind” and with a simple smirk and an annoyed eye roll, I go about my day.
For some reason, I think I get a whole different perspective on life. Not being able to see faces gives me a way to just see their personality first. Just to focus on the most important thing about a person is truly a gift, I don’t get sidetracked by someone’s appearance like their clothes, or their looks, or even their size. Ever since the 2016 election, I realized that I have to fight for what I believe in and hold the people that also care about those issues close to me. I think I had to finally accept others’ differences to stay strong and I couldn’t do that without knowing who they actually are first. Listening, I continue to hear others’ stories of hardships and injustices to better understand and connect with them.
When I put on my glasses I’m able to see what everyone else sees, the person that everyone recognizes. I admire both sides of someone, I connect the dots to their true selves and their appearance. I see who someone really is deep down and I can finally put someone else’s shoes on.
I ask my mom almost every day about me when I was little, and one of the stories she always talks about was when I got my first pair of glasses. She would say, “Grace when you got your first pair of glasses your face seemed to light up seeing the whole world as I see it, you never took them off.” Laughing, I tell her the same thing I always say “it’s not much different now.” My mom is right I almost never take off my glasses but now, time and again I will just see the true beauty in everything with my own eyes, with no extra help from doctors or glasses, I just see. We need to stop looking through the window of what we could be missing out on. Instead, go outside, live it, take off your glasses and get to know someone, see in a different way than just one, put yourself in someone else’s shoes for once.
