Twenty five years in to wearing glasses and I finally feel confident about them. Wearing glasses never really bothered me as such, but I did very often feel like I would look better without out them. The problem was that I definitely couldn’t see without them. Being the practical person I am, I wore my glasses and made the best of it.

When we moved to Germany and I had to sit my driving test here, I took lessons that summer to get used to driving on the wrong side of the road. As the glasses wearers among you will know, driving on a sunny day is a pain in the backside if you don’t have prescription sunglasses. After the first couple of lessons I headed straight to the optician, ordered contact lenses and bought a normal pair of sun glasses in the drug store.

Creature of habit that I am, I wore my glasses to work and put my contacts in for my driving lessons. After my eyes got used to the contacts, I decided I’d try them out at work. Finding my face looked too bare without glasses, I paid more attention to my makeup (which, incidentally, is much easier to apply with contacts in!). In the office my gut feeling was confirmed. I looked better without glasses. Colleagues did double takes. Some didn’t recognise me at all till I spoke. At home a friend of The Bavarian called over to visit. He stood in the hall looking at my face and said “Why don’t you let yourself look like this all the time?”.

I was in my mid-twenties then and had bit of an ugly duckling revelation. Moving from glasses to contacts, although my motivation was purely practical, gave me a big boost in my looks and my confidence. I was suddenly less of a wallflower and I liked that.

Now, in my late 30s, I have come far enough that I am ready for glasses again. Not every day, because I still have an aversion to prescription sunglasses, but often. This time round I have chosen glasses I feel comfortable in and that suit me, my type of clothes and my face, made up or not. I’m treating them like any other accessory. They’ll suit some outfits and hairstyles more than others. I can pick and choose when to wear them and when to opt for contacts. In terms of looks things seem to have come full circle. My arrival at the office with my new glasses on was met with oohs and aahs of approval.