The Jacket By Gary Soto - Essay Example

There were some kids who would call me names like geek and make fun of my eyeglasses all the time. The unsolicited public attention and other people’s opinion made a significant impact over the way I felt about myself. There were times when I felt really angry for being different from other children. Other times I pitied myself for being left out of the crowd. All I ever wanted was to be accepted by other people for who I am. After spending some time coming up with reasons for why other people thought of me differently, I realized that the lenses of my old pair of eyeglasses were even thicker than the glass of our aquarium at home.

I decided to convince my mother to buy me another pair of eyeglasses made of thinner glass and black colored frames. While I was growing up, receiving a new pair of fashionable eyeglasses was always on my wish-list. As my father passed away while I was in elementary school, our income was not sufficient to financially support the daily needs of my family members. Aside from me being the eldest, I also had six other siblings my mother was taking care of. Because of financial limitations, I had no other choice but to understand my mother’s situation.

For almost five years, I wore my old pair of eyeglasses everywhere I went. Due to a lack of other options, I had to face the humiliation of wearing my old pair of eyeglasses to school. During the five years I forced myself to wear my old pair of eyeglasses, I managed to accept the fact that I needed to feel comfortable in them even though they had made me look down on myself for some time. Because of my desire for acceptance, I pretended as if nothing really bothered me. By cleaning my old pair of eyeglasses without even looking through the lenses, I acted as if I was wearing cool and unique eyeglasses.

When I reached the eighth grade, my large blue rounded eyeglasses started to blur