by lithocarpus | 2025-09-27 20:06:05+00:00
tl:dr; My vision significantly improved as an adult and seems to possibly still be improving over the five years since. I don't think I can know the cause for sure, but I did go from being mostly at computers to being mostly outdoors in the woods two years before I noticed the improvement.

longer story: Growing up, at the doctor's they made us look at some letters on a chart far away and I didn't realize I was supposed to tell them if the letters were blurry. I was pretty good at figuring out what the blurry letters were because there are only so many options. So they always said I had 20-20 vision. At about age 21 I was driving my dad's car and put on his sunglasses which were prescription sunglasses, and suddenly I could see the crisp detail of everything - the distant treetops, the little rocks in the field along the road. I was blown away and realized my eyes were not very good and I had been missing this my whole life. I got glasses.

Then later at 27 when I was quitting my office job to go be in nature, I stopped wearing the glasses for a combination of reasons.

Two years later at 29, I had been thinking about getting glasses again as I really wanted to see the forest where I lived in detail. But I didn't do it. But one day a few months after having those thoughts, I was lying on the deck looking up at the tall trees from underneath, and realized I could see clearly the needles in detail. I looked around at the distant mountain top and could see that clearly too. I was blown away. I don't know for sure if it happened suddenly or gradually, but part of it must have progressed pretty quickly since it was within a few months of when I had thought about getting glasses.

It's been four years now, and my eyes are still great like they were right after I noticed the shift. My right eye is really sharp and the left is also better than it was originally. And while I can't be sure, it seems like my left eye has been getting better over these years, because at first I noticed my right eye had become sharp but the left was still quite blurry. I'm constantly grateful for this, it's just about the best gift I could have ever asked for.

I don't know if I was born nearsighted or if that developed due to excessive use of books and computer from a very young age. I am still able to focus up close, at ~4 inches with my left eye and ~4.5 inches with my right. I do know for sure that when I did get glasses, they not only improved my long distance vision, but also improved my focus on the computer screen 2ft away, and I would often wear them at the computer from age 21 to 27.

Also of note, when I got glasses, the way I understood the test they did to determine my prescription, it seemed there was a 50/50 chance that the prescription would be on the slightly too-strong side rather than the too-weak side, thus training my eyes in the wrong direction. I asked the eye doctor about this and they said no it doesn't matter at all. I think it would have been wise to get prescription on the slightly too weak side so that even with the glasses my eyes might be able to train themselves in the correct direction even if very slowly. I would recommend this to anyone who gets a prescription.