I didn’t start wearing glasses until I was a junior in college. I probably needed them for a year before that, but I always made excuses for my poor eyesight. I was in college, so I argued that my eyes were just tired because I was, even if I had slept for 12 hours the night before. Unlike most college students, though, I was happy to be getting glasses.
I was planning to be a high school English teacher, so it would make sense for me to want glasses. However, I didn’t want them because they would make me look more intellectual. No, I wanted them as a prop. The English professor who had the most impact on my life wore glasses, an old-fashioned set with the thick black frame across the top, but no frame below. Whenever he was making an important point or answering a difficult question, he would take off his glasses and pinch the bridge of his nose. Only then would he start with his answer: “You see, what Hawthorne is trying to do here is…”
I didn’t want to imitate his approach completely, as I didn’t think that look would work well for me. instead, I wanted to take my glasses off and hold them in my right hand, then use them to gesture as I spoke. I didn’t plan to do it often. This is where I wanted to be like my professor, as I would only do this at times where it would make a point more important in some way. I even practiced this move from time to time….