My current morning hall duty station puts me in direct contact with much of my school’s sixth and seventh grades population even before the school day begins. Yesterday, with my new glasses firmly serving their own duty, I became keenly aware that students were not ignoring me as usual but were looking a second time before regaining focus on the floor tiles, slight smirks on many of their faces.
A colleague passing by said, “You look like a different person.”
“Nice glasses, Mr. J,” a few students said to me.
“You look really good in those,” said another.
The comments continued throughout the day. It was similar to after I had my ears pierced: the whispers of “glasses” circulating around me were corporeal.
“Hey, those look nice,” said my dandy colleague who has so far remained true to his dubbing 2012 the Year of the Three-Piece Suit. “Are they Ray-Bans?”
“Uh, that sounds right,” I said. “I think so.” (Later I took the glasses off to check the brand name on the side, but I couldn’t read the print without them on.)
“Nerd,” said another student. “Where’s your pocket protector?”
“Are those your permanent ones?”
“Take the glasses off. You look weird.”
“I liked your old ones better.”
O, the agony of seventh grade. I’m just glad I’m not in middle school!
