20/20 Carrots
For the longest time, I was both proud and perhaps a bit smug that I was the only person in my entire family — extended included — who did not need glasses.
That’s quite the achievement, too, considering how many Asians tend to be myopic.
I thought I had escaped that fate, as I remained spectacle-free through my teens, despite the fact that my parents, brothers, cousins, aunts and uncles all grew up wearing those familiar round or cat-eyed black, plastic frames.
My dreams came to an abrupt end, though, when my older brother Dale took me to the Department of Motor Vehicles one day to get my driver’s license. I had studied the manual like crazy so that I’d do well on the written and driving tests. But who knew it was the simple eye test that would do me in?
I guess I should have known what was in store as I stood in line and stared at the eye chart hanging some feet away behind the counter. As hard as I squinted, I still could barely make out anything on it. Once I got closer, though, I thought surely I would. My brother even coaxed me to get out of line, inch closer to the counter and try to memorize the chart before my turn was called. I did give that a try. But as luck would have it, they closed the line that I was in, and shifted us to another line — with a totally different eye chart. Curses!
