A friend of mine has bad eyesight.  I think it is -16 or -17 in both eyes.  So, I was probing her with questions about her vision and the good and the bad.  She is a very intelligent, beautiful woman who has made a successful career teaching literature at the collegiate level.  One of the things she remembers as a child was HATING the eye doctors, so much in fact, that she did not tell anyone that she couldn’t see.  She said that she gravitated towards books and a love of literature, mostly she believes because that is what she could see.  Math for her was awful because she couldn’t see the teacher demonstrating problems.  It wasn’t until third grade that she had her first pair of glasses.  Her experiences with glasses were not the best and she recalled teasing and having trouble socially (I think things have changed in the last 20 years – at least I am hoping) For her, the ability to wear contact lenses changed her life.  We talked for a while about other things, and then we got to talking about the really cool ways that bodies can adapt to make things easier.  When she started horseback riding in college, her instructor pointed out that she held her body at a slight angle.  It wasn’t until she was an adult, that she realized her best vision was at a slight angle.  Her body naturally adjusted so she can see better. 

It is nice to be able to talk and ask questions freely to an adult that articulate their difficulties and things they wished would have happened earlier.  If you had the chance to talk to her (or someone else for that matter) what would you want to know?