Summary

A woman recounts her experience of losing and miraculously finding her glasses while surfing at Beginner's Beach in Lombok, Indonesia, reflecting on the vulnerability of her diminishing eyesight and the kindness of strangers.

Abstract

The author shares her adventure of learning to surf with friends on a beach in Lombok, Indonesia, emphasizing the challenges faced due to her poor eyesight and the unsuitability of her swimwear for the activity. Despite warnings and her own better judgment, she decides to surf with her glasses instead of contact lenses, leading to a moment of panic when a wave dislodges them. Stranded without her glasses and unable to see clearly, she feels vulnerable and disconnected, especially after her phone had broken earlier. However, her story takes a fortunate turn when a man finds her glasses in the ocean, restoring her sight and her faith in human kindness. The incident prompts her to switch to contact lenses for the remainder of the surfing course and reinforces her appreciation for her vision and the resilience of her beloved glasses.

Opinions

The author acknowledges her own naivety and clumsiness in choosing to surf with her glasses, despite knowing the risks.
She expresses a deep connection to her glasses, considering them almost as a part of her body due to her severe myopia.
The author admits to feeling scared and vulnerable without her glasses, highlighting her reliance on her sense of sight.
She conveys gratitude and amazement at the kindness of the man who found her glasses, emphasizing the improbability of their recovery.
The experience leads her to a renewed appreciation for the sense of sight and the durability of her glasses, which she continues to use despite recommendations to replace them.

Travel | Life Lessons

Have You Ever Lost Your Sight (and Found It Back Again)?

What are the odds?

The waves were good, apparently. I wouldn’t be able to tell because it was my first time surfing.

Two friends and I rode on our motorbikes to the beach. Those motorbikes they rent out to anyone being 18+, regardless if you have a license or not.

I love them. They’re easy to drive and have a perfect speed — not too fast — because you don’t want to make traffic more dangerous than it already is. Too many people had accidents.

Beginner’s Beach is in the south of Lombok, Indonesia. Other beaches were way out of our league. Or, the beaches were fine, but the waves were too high and the pointy rocks scared us.

We were beginners, and Beginner’s Beach was a perfect fit.

I’m also naive, clumsy, and lucky, but that doesn’t have anything to do with the beach just yet.

As a woman, when you go surfing, you have two important objects to keep in mind.

I’m sure the swimwear thing also counts for men, but I don’t think the anxiety of losing yours is equal. Plus, most of the time women have two pieces to lose instead of one.

My outfit wasn’t prepared for surfing on this trip: I had one of those tops that open or flip as soon as you dive. Surfing wasn’t their purpose of existence.

Naturally, whenever I fell off the board, my left arm would swing around my front to keep that top in place.

And as a blind bat (-4.75 and -5), I also had to keep an eye on my glasses.

Hence, whenever I fell off the board, my right hand would hold my glasses in place. I surely didn’t want to lose those.

Glasses feel like a part of my body. I’m so used to them. Sometimes when I have my eyes closed I want to take the glasses off when they’re already off. I’m just used to having them on my face and barely feeling them. Contacts I’ve tried in the past, but it’s not my thing. My sister can plug them in a second without needing any mirrors, I can’t.

My biggest mistake was that I thought “it went fine yesterday, today will work out as well”.

Why don’t you wear contacts?, the surf instructors and my friends asked. I had them with me on this trip, so it was a very fair thing to ask.

This was the second day of the surfing course. Because wearing glasses worked out on the first day (all is relative) I got overconfident it would be fine again.

Not too long after being in the water, a wave caught me. When my head came above the water surface — I didn’t see a thing.

Everything was a blur. Water was shoulder level and the waves continued to flow.

Why did I think wearing glasses during surfing was a good idea?

In a gigantic ocean, barely seeing, and looking for your slightly golden sand-colored glasses? That’s the definition of pointless if you ask me.

Out of the warm water, feeling vulnerable and lost, because I couldn’t see much and my phone was broken. Not that that last part really mattered because travel friends were here, and the home front couldn’t change anything anyway, but it felt unreachable like it does in nightmares.

Perhaps some people have a better way of dealing with not being able to see. I have always found it scary that my eyesight is becoming less and less, appreciating the sense of seeing so much.

I sat at the beach for a while. Not knowing what to do. I couldn’t drive back, that would be extremely irresponsible.

I’d probably drive 10 km an hour and still have an accident. Waiting for my friends to be done with their course was the wisest thing I could think of. I tried to relax and take in the warmth and the presence of people.

Then, after an hour, in the vague pastel-colored distance, a man walks from the water, holding his hand in the air to draw attention.

I vaguely saw how a scene evolved and slowly blurry faces turned toward me. Some people on the beach knew I lost my glasses.

This dear man accidentally stepped on my glasses and found them. Thank you!!

That’s right — in the midst of the Indian Ocean. An hour after losing them. And, above all, they were still in one piece! Honestly, what are the odds!

I bought him and the whole table of friends he was with a drink and hugged him and cried out of thankfulness and joy.

On the last day of the surfing course I — obviously — made sure to wear contacts. The sun was so bright during those days that we had to squint our eyes constantly. We had wrinkles drawn by the sun.

And yes, those glasses you see on my profile picture, they’re still the same pair I lost and were found that day, June 2017.

When I went to get the lenses renewed last year because my prescription changed, the optometrist told me that she didn’t expect this frame to last very long and that I’d better get a different one.

Well, I giggled to myself, this frame survived a lot. I’m sure it can last a few more years.

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