Philippine Travels # 7: Myopia

As most of you are wont to know, I wear prescription glasses. However, it is less common knowledge just how dependent I am to my spectacles. I’m pretty much legally blind. My eyes are at 8.25 each, meaning without my glasses, everyone is but a blurry blob of matter.

 

Fortunately, I am also myopic, which means that while I have very poor eyesight, I can see just enough for when my glasses and I are separated, for as long as it’s only a few feet in front of my face. More than that and everything just kind of meshes into something else.

 

When I went to La Union for the weekend, I lost my glasses in the sea (so much for leaving no trace), but ironically enough, though I was left blind (if you will) for most of the trip, I learned to focus on the things in front of me. Things that, should I not have been forced to look at, I would have dismissed as inessential. Good things come out of misfortunes, no?

 

So yes, not having my glasses while surfing (I wasn’t able to bring my contact lenses, another lesson learned), made me focus on the things immediate to me. The surfboard, my surfing coach, the 4 feet tall waves making their way towards me, the incessant tugging on my leash by the raging waves, the food we ate, the hammock I slept in when night crept in, the multitude of drinks we shared with each other, the faces of those I met — Sara from Morocco, Claudio from Argentina, Honeywell, Nonoy, Ian — …had I not been forced to focus on them, I probably would have missed out on easily one of the best out of town trips I have had.

 

—

 

Before I left, Ate Emily, the girl who was manning the hostel we spent the night in, approached me to ask if I were still studying. I told her I just graduated from college, and that I’d be off to law school next week. She gave me a sad smile, saying that if I didn’t have anything to do, she was going to offer me to take her place at the surf hostel, seeing as how I was already making good friends with the people there. I was tempted to say yes to the offer, but I didn’t, mostly because I really do want to go to law school, no matter how painfully nerdy that sounds.

 

No regrets, though. I have the rest of my life to own surf hostels, or mountain cabins, or beach lodges. And should I face disillusionment or disenchantment in law school, I would just have to lean back and remove my glasses — and figure out which things I would have to focus on at this very moment.

 

Photo gallery! All photos taken by me, mostly unedited.

 

Wish me luck in law school! 🙂

 

P.S. My apologies for the jumble of words. 😦