JOSSELINS SEARCH FOR THE GLASSES

In the past, I found a lot of things cool. I wanted them, and once I had them, I was very unhappy because I didn't actually like them that much. It started, for example, with a broken arm, because a cast was of course something that no one had. My parents had already prepared me that I would probably like it less afterwards, and I had to agree with them. Same with the pixie cut. That only really came into fashion fifteen years later. And besides, I also shouted three thousand times that I really, really wanted glasses.

A few weeks ago, I was in the car with Lilian and she asked me to read the numbers from the parking meter. Well, I certainly didn't recite those five digits smoothly. To be honest, five totally different numbers came out. And when we went to celebrate Sinterklaas at Lilian's in Zoetermeer, we missed the exit because of me, which meant we first hit Den Haag and Rijswijk. So I had already noticed that something was up with my eyes.

My friend Jolien has had glasses for three weeks now, and my goodness, she was already pretty, but now she's really even prettier. She reassured me a bit about the fact that glasses can actually be very cool. With friend Jolien in mind, Carice van Houten and Jennifer Aniston in mind, I visited the glasses store Ace & Tate to first have my eyes measured and then subject myself to a fitting session. The eye exam was like a world opening up for me because I could suddenly see the other side of the street very clearly instead of some vague lights. So yes, I was happy. In fact, I think the glasses guy had never seen such a happy person in his life. Until the moment I had to try on glasses, because I might have had those pretty faces in my head, but no glasses made me a prettier person. Of course, I took a hundred selfies; hair down, hair up, and who knows what else, but no, I couldn't figure it out.

Then the sweetest girl from the store came with the tip that I could also order five glasses online for five days to try them on. With every look, with every kind of makeup, and with every hairstyle. Although for me, it really stays with a bun. I did that. And after hundreds of fitting sessions, opinions, and bad selfies I eventually chose a pair of glasses because let's admit it: I really picked the prettiest model from the collection and now I'm quite looking forward to its arrival.

All's well that ends well. Glasses-wearing Josselin will soon see leaves on the trees (Christmas trees, duh) and license plates of other cars, so this is the first example of things I found very cool in the past and still actually do. Phew.