So, this week I have been having some problems seeing out of my right eye. So, what does a normal person do?

Order a pizza.

Speaking of which I’m hungry - but no I didn’t do that - I went and saw the eye doctor!

“You have an astigmatism,” He says after shining a really bright light into my eye for about 5 minutes.

“Uh huh…” I say, “But can you make me see out of my right eye again?”

“Why yes, yes I can,” He says. He takes out these huge, bulky glasses and takes out what looks like a few slides but they are clear. He puts them into the huge-rimmed 5-pound glasses.

“Don’t worry, no one will see you in these,” He says, laughing as he puts them on my face. I blink a few times. It’s a tiny bit better, but not much.

“Your astigmatism has gotten much worse,” He says, shaking his head.

“That’s comforting,” I say sarcastically, taking off the glasses.

“Well, you can try the new contacts for astigmatism if you want, they are called ‘toric’ lenses,” He says smartly. He goes out for a minute and comes back with a trial pair of the toric lenses.

I put them in - no difference. Still can’t see out of my right eye.

He shines the really bright light into my eye again.

“Well, they are fitting really well - still no difference?” He says, sitting back in his chair.

I shake my head.

“I see, well your best bet would be either glasses which will fix the astigmatism in your right eye or surgery.”

“I like the way my eye is now,” I say, smiling, “I’ve had it that way for as long as I can remember.”

“I see.”

“I’ve also paid extra money for the last 7 years to NOT wear glasses and to avoid the pocket-protector geek-look.”

“How often do you work on a computer?” He says, ignoring my last statement.

“I think the better question would be ‘When am I not on a computer’,” I say, adding, “I’m a computer major.”

“Ah, well that’s your problem right there!” He says, laughing. “You are actually at a weird stage right now in the astigmatism - the toric lenses aren’t going to help and glasses will only help a little bit. I hate to say it but there’s really nothing I can do for you now except give you your new prescription.”

“Are you saying that I have to get used to not seeing out of my right eye?”

“For now, yes - unless you come back and want to try the glasses again…”

I shake my head.

“I came because I want to see out of BOTH of my eyes, not one,” I say, irritated.

He can’t help me - I can see closer things like when reading a book or whatever close to my face, but anything farther than three feet away (further than a computer monitor) I can’t see out of my right eye.

It’s annoying - I would like to be able to see clearly out of both eyes now, Thanks.

So, some people may wonder, what is it like to be a computer programmer at an internship?

It’s kind of like solving a math problem - let’s take 2 + 2. The answer lies out there, you just have to find out what that answer is.

You start working on a program, and you come across a problem. You try to plug in a solution, and a day later you find out that
2 + 2 does not equal 42, 16, 24, 38, or 87.

You work on the problem some more and try to search for your problem on Google.

You find out that the answer to 2 + 2 is not Tomato Soup, Paper Shredder, Skateboard, or Cheetah. The answer is still out there.

Sometimes, when you are looking for the answer to 2 + 2, you come across a website that has nothing to do with mathematics and the answer comes to you naturally as if it were just right in front of you.

For me, I eliminate every answer except for 4 and then figure out that since 2 + 2 does not equal 42, 16, 24, 38, 87, 104, 315, 65, and 7 - the answer MUST be 4.

If only programming were like finding the answer to 2 + 2 - I would be a genius.

Unfortunately in terms of our metaphor, it takes me over a day to figure out that 2 plus 2 does in fact equal 4, and another intern has already figured out that 2 + 2 equals 4, that 3 + 3 equals 6, AND 4 + 4 equals 8 in the same day.