Framed

I have an eye appointment tonight. This is exciting because I’ve been out of contact lenses for … um, let’s see … MONTHS. While I love my glasses, the frames are almost five years old and their fabulousness is being taken over by fragility, which is a problem.

However, as anyone who relies heavily on corrective lenses knows, picking out glasses while you’re yet wearing glasses is a challenge. You have no idea how they look, because … well, because you can’t SEE yourself. (If you COULD see yourself, you wouldn’t be there picking out glasses, now would you?)

In the past, I’ve resolved this by taking someone well meaning (and brutally honest) with me. I need someone there who knows the way I like to look, and who will steer me in the correct direction. On occasion, I have made a poor choice of companion, such as the year I took someone with a sexy librarian fantasy as my “picking frames” buddy (“Okay, now take your hair down, and shake it out, and take off your glasses.” “Dude. You are now banished to the Food Court.”)

This evening, I am flying solo. Which should be okay, since I have a better idea now of what suits my face. To be honest, if I can’t get the frames I’m currently wearing, I’m going to try to find the closest approximation as possible because I LOVE these glasses. They’re not subtle or shy. They don’t pretend to be something they’re not. They make a statement.

That’s how I like to look and, to be honest, how I prefer to think of myself.

This makes me think about when I was younger and choosing frames. When I was in high school – and to be honest, in college as well (you know, back in the day when the dinosaurs roamed the earth) – my frame choosing end-goal was to find frames that were so nondescript as to fade into the background. The saddest, wimpiest frames ever.

I never thought about it then, but I’m thinking about it now, because just as I believe the frames I’m currently wearing reflect who I am, I think those frames did too. They didn’t express confidence. They didn’t make a statement. They nearly apologized for their presence on my face, as if they were sorry to bother anyone, but, um, you know, we’re here at the moment. Feel free not to notice.

The fact that I spent so much of my time when I was younger feeling that way makes me … well, it makes me mad. I am annoyed with myself for feeling like I had to apologize for being who I am, when who I am – outspoken, goofy, ridiculous as that is – is someone I actually enjoy being, who I’ve become quite proud of, and who is deserving of some attention.

So tonight? Bold frames. Statement frames. Frames that make you sit up and take notice.

Because we ALL deserve to be proud of who we are.