When I was a kid, I used to play t-ball, but I stopped playing in third grade because I wasn’t performing as well as I had been. Less than a year later, my family and I found the source of my declining t-ball skill—I needed glasses. My vision wasn’t horrible yet, but it was affected enough to cause my eyes to strain to see things, especially in my classes. Ever since then, my prescription has needed to be increased every year or so. Since the start, I have now dropped to a -5 for my prescription. For reference, the font that you are reading this sentence in, without my glasses or contacts, I need to be about six inches away from to read properly. That’s not good. And this reason is exactly why I prefer to wear contacts. 

For the first few years that I needed glasses, I just simply wore them. Contacts were not appealing to wear when I was younger, since the idea of sticking plastic in my eye was a little unsettling. There is also a lot of upkeep and care that has to be exercised when having contacts, like taking them out to sleep and ‘technically’ taking them out to shower and swim. As a 10 year old, this complication was just too much. In addition, I didn’t need to wear glasses at all times, as my eyesight was not as bad as it is now.

As I kept going through middle school, I played more sports like basketball. And playing with glasses on is both tricky and unsafe, as they are prone to falling off and make getting hit in the face with a basketball hurt even more. Because of this, I was one of those kids with “Rec-Specs,” which are essentially safety glasses for kids who play sports. I mean they worked, but they looked ridiculous. And they were one more thing that I needed to make sure that I had with me. It was a hassle, so when I was given the option to switch to contacts, you best believe that I took it. 

At this point, my eyesight was bad to the point that I was wearing the glasses constantly, so the upgrade to something that would need less maintenance during the day was relatively simple. In addition to the practicality of them, contacts provided me with a full field of view, something that you do not get with glasses. Being involved in cross country and basketball at the time, having my sight be at the same level for all areas was crucial. They allowed me to be able to perform the best I could, and they prevented any shaking of the glasses as I ran over adverse terrain. I still use the contacts to this day, and they’re a game changer. Sure, I have to ensure that each one lasts for a month and take them out each night and not be able to see at all. And I might have had the wrong prescription in one of my eyes for a full day which gave me a blistering headache. But those are small prices to pay for clear and stable vision.

So, why are contacts better? Some of the things that I just mentioned are not ideal. But glasses, in my mind, are a lot more of a hassle. They can get dirty, they can break, wearing safety glasses on top of them is irritating, sports can suddenly get really out of focus, the lenses can create distortion—the list goes on. With contacts, they just really require maintenance. You have to make sure that you take good care of them and then all of the positives that come with them just work. In short, contacts are the superior vision aid compared to glasses.