You could say that by the beginning of middle school, I was pretty much blind without my glasses.
Throughout middle school, I refused to wear my glasses unless necessary--necessary being to see the board in front of the classroom, to watch tv, to read signs a couple of feet from me. But I took them off the rest of the time. Instead of conveniently keeping them on from one class to another, I took them off.
No, before you suggest it, I wasn't ashamed of wearing glasses. I didn't care if people called me "four-eyes," not that anybody dared; as the tallest girl since elementary school, I'd just step on them. Like Linda taught me. But looks weren't the reason why.
& for some reason, this intrigued people. I told them it was because everything was prettier this way. Which was true for me at that time. All that I saw was through a soft focus, everything blurred, "bokeh"...
In retrospect, I think the little me thought it would shield her. From the ugly in this world. The evil. My refusal to wear my glasses on an everyday basis ensured my safety of not being hurt. Emotionally, more than physically because I remember running into a lot of things because of this. It was my decision to stay ignorant and soon enough, I realized it protected me from nothing. It only put me at fault more when I couldn't see things right in front of my nose. (Heh..heh... get it?) Anywho, soon enough, I realized what a detriment I was being to myself and finally accepted reality. Full of blemishes and uneven pavements and scratches and scars.
Mais c'est la vie et maintenant, je vois.