For many Americans, some degree of poor eyesight is part of life. In fact, according to glassescrafter.com (with information provided from the Vision Council of America), “approximately 75% of adults use some sort of vision correction. About 64% of them wear eyeglasses, and about 11% wear contact lenses, either exclusively, or with glasses.”

I started wearing glasses when I was around 10 years old, so I’ve worn them for almost a decade by now. As such, I hesitate to change my vision correction method. Furthermore, when I was in seventh grade, my science teacher told our class a couple of “horror stories” about contact lenses getting stuck behind the wearer’s eyes, so understandably, I’ve been a little unsure when it comes to trying contacts. Laser surgery on the other hand is surgery – and for the eyes, nonetheless – so I’m honestly a little afraid to go through such a procedure.

Besides, I’m quite used to wearing glasses. At this point, a sudden switch to either contacts or, through laser eye surgery, not needing any corrective sort of lens, would leave me feeling somewhat incomplete. I guess you can say that I’ve grown almost attached to wearing glasses. After all, as I mentioned, I have been wearing them for about 10 years. As such, over that time period, I’ve realized that there are many things that people who wear glasses just get.

1. There’s a very good reason why you wear glasses – it’s hard to see without them

There are quite a few situations where we are unable to wear our glasses. Whether you just woke up and are trying to find where you put them last night or you’ve taken them off for some other reason (like to take a shower), not having them on can make it difficult to see things clearly, which tends to be frustrating.

2. Wearing sunglasses can be a challenge

For the most part, sunglasses and glasses are not meant to be combined. Trying to get a pair of sunglasses to stay perched in front of your glasses and/or finding a pair that doesn’t make it apparent that you have two sets of glasses on can be tricky. However, there are wraparound and clip-on sunglasses which are designed for those with glasses.

3. Lying down on your side with glasses is impossible

Whenever you lie down on your side, your glasses always move and make it uncomfortable to do so. This is especially true of metal glasses, where the nose pads dig into the side of your nose each and every time you try and lie down. Furthermore, it just makes sense to take them off because even though you can’t see without them, when they’ve shifted at such an awkward angle, it becomes difficult to see with them anyways.

4. The metal glasses’ nose pads leave marks on your nose

For those with metal glasses like myself, the nose pads can be a bit of an annoyance. Since most people wear their glasses for hours on end without taking them off, those seemingly harmless nose pads get a chance to make lasting imprints on the side of your nose.

5. Your glasses are forever sliding down your nose

A good portion of your day is spent adjusting your glasses so that you see through them, instead of over them. I wear metal framed glasses (instead of plastic ones) because the nose pads provide a little extra support to help the glasses stay up, but even still, I find myself fixing my glasses a lot over the course of the day.

6. Rain is not your friend

If you walk outside when it’s raining without some sort of cover, it’s almost guaranteed that your glasses will get wet and visibility will be blurred. Then, when they do get wet in the rain, one of the two following problems often exists: either your clothes are wet too so there’s no way to dry off/clean your glasses, or you shouldn’t even bother trying to clean them up because they will get wet again shortly and you’ll just have to wipe them off again (and again, and again).

7. It’s quite easy to steam up your glasses

You can just be walking from a cold area to a hot one and due to the sudden change in temperature, your glasses will fog up. It’s also super easy to fog them up when eating something hot (in temperature). There have been countless times where I’ve leaned over my hot food and have sat back up to realize that I’ve fogged up my glasses.

8. Glasses get dirty so fast and so easily

It seems like glasses just attract dust and dirt. Even if I just cleaned my glasses (and I mean really cleaned them, with water and an eyeglass cleaning cloth), it seems that without fail, they’ll gather dust and dirt within minutes. Often times, there isn’t enough dust or it isn’t noticeable enough to warrant cleaning again, but they do get dusty right away.

9. Glasses are simpler to use than contact lenses

With glasses, as soon as you find out where you put them, you can just grab them, put them on and you’re ready to go. With contact lenses, you have to keep them in a solution, use eye drops to avoid dry eyes and actually make the effort to put them in your eyes. If you’re like me and don’t like putting anything in your eyes, whether it’s the eye drops or contact lenses, glasses are much easier.

10. You have so many choices when it comes to choosing new frames

This can be a good thing or a bad thing. Since I can be very selective with my glasses and I don’t enjoy taking time to try on new frames, I like to just keep my old frames and replace the lenses. However, for those who like to look for new frames, there’s a whole bunch of choices to make, such as what type, color, shape and style of frame you prefer.

Without a doubt, glasses can be annoying and troublesome to wear at times. At the end of the day though, if you have vision problems that can be corrected, glasses allow you to see more clearly.