Strained eyes

I wonder if I'm ruining my eyes by looking at the screen so long. I've been addicted to the Internet since I was really young - I would say '97, when my dad first hooked us up via America Online. I still remember dial-tones, stand-by, passwords, screenames, chat rooms. I still remember the little alcove that my dad had set up in the dining room, and then later downstairs in the little nook between the wall and the bathroom. I still remember closing the door behind me every night so that I would have a five second warning before someone would could downstairs. I still remember planning what I would wear to the computer so that my pants would be easy to pull up.

These days, I wear contacts. Last December my optometrist told me that if I continued to wear my contacts so much, I would go blind in a couple of years. It was scary. I remember walking out into daylight some days and not being able to open my eyes. I remember straining against the sun, tears running down my cheeks. I remember blinking constantly, eye-drops, laying on my back on my bed and trying to focus on anything, everything. I switched to glasses for a little over a month, but it still hurts, sometimes. Like today.

Sometimes I wonder if its because I've seen too much. Probably not, but sometimes, I really do wonder.