After 25 years of seeing the world through my eyes, I decided to get them checked, to make sure I wasn't missing out on beauty far beyond what I'd ever seen before. Some of my friends couldn't believe that I'd never have my eyes test before, and if i'm honest, I hadn't thought about it until recently when struggling to distinguish words that I could have sworn I should have been able to see.

I'll describe the experience of having an eye test, from how It was for me.

You wait with a bunch of people, listening to all the conversations going around and watching people get their prescriptions and be told the condition of their eyes. Something which I wasn't worried about at least, as I seemed to be the youngest there by about half their age. Though I know that a large bunch of my friends have glasses, and I know one in particular who is practically blind, but she shall remain nameless.

"Andrew?" someone calls out. I stand up and i'm asked to enter a dark room with two machines.

One machine takes a picture of the back of my eye. The other tells the optometrist what is wrong with my eyes.

"Look at the hot air balloon in the distance", as I rest my chin on this fascinating contraption. The other machine, I repeat the process, only two ultra bright flashes are shot at my eye. Apparently this is able to take a picture of the back of my eye, exposing any issues that I might be having.

Seemed simple. I'm told to go sit back down and wait for the next optometrist to inspect me, and he eventually does. This is the eye test that i've always seen in movies and tv programs, a card in the distance that has projected letters on, and I'm given instructions to read a specific line on them.

It becomes blatantly apparent that my eyes aren't as good as they used to be, given that i've spend the last 10 years straight staring no further than 15" away from illuminated screens. "L M...no... N... J...E or K?

The man checking my eyes puts a machine on my face that resembles butterfly wings, covered with lenses, he then asks me two questions: "Better or worse" then again "Better or worse". Each time switching his machines lenses around to determine how my eyes improve or reject the new sight.

He switches to a lens that changes everything. I can suddenly read the bottom line with pixel perfect accuracy. Damn.