This is my first day after having LASIK in my left eye. The eye patch (as photographed) is off and I have a contact lens in my right eye. Already, people treat me a bit differently. It is quite interesting to note. It is something like what Gwyneth Paltrow felt in a fat suit, when Hal’s attitude towards her changed just because he saw her as a good-looking person.
Me with sunglassesFirstly, walking into shopping centres (slowly, with family members around me) with my “shazom” red Ferragamo Swarovski-studded sunglasses has made a few more passers-by look at me. I suppose with my old-style pony tail and spectacles, I looked like a dime-a-dozen plain Jane. With new clothes, heels, hair let down and sunglasses, outwardly I look different though inside I am still the same. I wonder if people care at all about the latter.
I received a similar response two weeks ago, when my eyes were unfocused after a pre-LASIK test, and I was sitting in a Ya Kun branch drinking ‘teh’ (tea) with my family with the sunglasses on. People from other tables were staring at me and even my mum said I looked pretty good. I decided to let them stare. Maybe they were wondering if I was a celebrity.
The second effect it had today, was that police officers thought I was a security risk!! We were queueing up at a bank, and within 2 minutes a police officer came up to me and asked me to remove my sunglasses. Plaintively, I told him, “But I just had an operation!” and looked really unhappy about it. I showed him my left eye which was red. I really didn’t want to take my sunglasses off, in case dust and other stuff got in.
The young officer backed off and said, “OK…” Anyway, to be safe we thought it was still better for me to wait outside, just in case they still thought I was going to rob the bank.
It is just fascinating how you can be treated differently just by the first impression you make. Over the next few months, I am planning to change more things and will be closely monitoring the difference in how people treat me. Perhaps there will be more similarities with another movie, Miss Congeniality. We shall see.
Comments
regarding harry potter on your twitter > No he didn’t die. Actually someone already posted the whole summary on wiki, and the copy on bittorrent is in fact the actual book.
Not only will you find others responding to you differently after Lasik, don’t be surprised if you respond differently to them. Such an important change in ones life and appearance can have consequences (good and not so good) well beyond a reduced need for corrective lenses. I look forward to reading your observations.
Glenn Hagele
USAEyes
I am not a doctor.