I've been framed

The eye doctor had one question for my mom. Did she want to purchase the insurance plan so that every part of my glasses could be replaced once during the course of the year? I sat in the chair wondering whether optometrists are real doctors. The one sitting across from me wore a white coat and he had two or three diplomas hanging in the exam room. But I never saw him with a stethoscope and he never gave me a shot. Was he a doctor or a salesman? This one was definitely pitching an insurance plan.

My mom asked what I thought. Being thirteen, I shrugged my shoulders and said, "I don't know." While my mom was deciding we looked for a new frame. I had been wearing glasses for almost six years and this wasn't my first time replacing a broken frame. The optometrist said that if she wasn't going to get the insurance she had better buy one of the new frames with the flex hinge as that was the only way they would last a year with my active lifestyle.

As we compared glasses, I settled on a pair of big-eyed black plastic frames. I thought they were very distinctive. The optometrist demonstrated how the hinges would give to make the glasses break resistant. The spring action caused the frames to gently hug my head. It was great to be able to see with a solid set of glasses instead of a jimmy-rigged tape job pair. I was even able to rest my head on a pillow and the glasses simply shifted to conform to the extra pressure instead of pushing off of my nose. These glasses were going to be great.

I was so excited that the next morning I was showing these glasses to all of my classmates. They didn't find these development in eyewear technology nearly as exciting as I did, but they humored me as I demonstrated how the frames could bend without breaking. In my third period class I went to P.E. I'll never forget how we went outside to play soccer. I used to put my glasses away when we played soccer to make sure they wouldn't break, but this time I wasn't worried at all.

One friend asked if I was sure that I didn't want to put them in their case and put them behind the goal post. "No," I bragged, "these things will be just fine, they are almost break-proof."
"Really?" he asked.

I don't know what came over me to cause me to demonstrate the indestructible nature of these frames. I assume I became convinced by my own hype. I carefully placed the glasses on the ground and invited my friends to watch as I stepped on the frames with my foot. I didn't stomp, I just stepped. Regardless, I didn't even have to look to know what the crack I heard meant. I was just glad my mom bought the insurance.