They say fashion is not a weapon; it is armor. I agree with them because for eight years I wore contacts and thin glasses and the world was a very different place for me. People bemoan my lack of “social skills,” but social interactions are a series of feedback loops, and when they start positively, there is a much higher chance of them remaining so. If you don’t look normal, every social interaction is like hitting a golf ball out of a sand trap. The fact that I was already struggling with depression meant I needed all the positivity I could get. I was lucky enough to look normal from 7th grade until the end of my sophomore year in college. Women liked me (though I didn’t really capitalize on that), and in college, I made friends and was accepted in a friend group for the first time in my entire life.
Then came the fleas. The cat had fleas and they were so bad that she sat on top of the refrigerator where my contacts happened to be. On August 20, 2000 I tried putting them in and my right one hurt. It was because of all the cat hair but it was the beginning of the end. My junior year of college I could no longer wear contacts and my life changed drastically because of it. I became a social pariah and women were almost completely off my radar.
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