It has been hard and very frustrating at times.
I got glasses in grade 3. Where I lived we had tests each week, and where you sat for the next week depended on the results. I alternated between the back row of the class (top 8 in the test), and the front row (bottom 8). My teacher and parents were sure I spent one week talking to my friends and not concentrating on what was being taught, and the next trying to catch up. Turned out, I could only see the board from the front row.
I had an accident 15 years ago. After the accident, I found that I wasn't seeing everything when I was driving. I had a few tests, and everything was OK. However, my length of vision had decreased, so I needed reading glasses, and my glasses were not strong enough for driving. So I got bifocals. These fixed my problems.
A few years later (maybe less), I needed multifocals, as I had started having headaches - I guess from the computer. These worked. The next time I had new glasses the multifocals didn't work - I kept on having problems driving (looking into the side mirror means you are using a different part of the lens for a second, and it was blurry). So the optometrist insisted on 2 pairs of normal glasses - one for reading, and one for driving. I then started to have headaches when I was sewing (sewing machine) and using the computer (I was a computer person before I retired). So I ended up with 3 pairs of single vision glasses.
Then I was accepted into a degree in Fashion Design. I started to have real problems. I could just see the whiteboard with my computer glasses, and just see what I was writing (but only just, and I was getting headaches - both were blurred). Often in class, we needed to do something on a mannequin (close work) then look at everyone's (far), and change ours to match (close), and continue to do this. I was having difficulty doing the course, and lots of headaches.
I went to my optometrist, and he said there was nothing that could be done, I would just have to put up with it. This was a very low point. He wouldn't put this in writing, so I couldn't get special consideration in the course either. And I really didn't want to get special consideration - I was already a freak (just about 3 times the age of everyone else in the course), without this! Mind you, everyone treated me the same as they did others, but I didn't want to exacerbate things.
I told a friend about it, and she recommended her optometrist, who gave me 3 pairs of glasses - reading/computer multifocals, computer/whiteboard multifocals (which could also be used for driving), and plain driving glasses. It was wonderful! I could now do everything. I haven't been doing the course this year or last year because my father got cancer, and I needed to visit my parents 7.5 hours away every 2 weeks, and the course changed, and they couldn't figure out what classes I needed to do. So, I haven't used the middle set of glasses for a while. I am beginning not to see the dashboard of the car when I am driving, so I might start to use this pair of glasses again.
When I was working, I had my computer glasses at work, so I didn't need to carry a set. I also found that one of my old prescriptions matched my computer glasses, so I had a pair in both locations.
Because I am usually switching between multifocals and straight glasses, I do have moments when I need to adjust. Because I really cannot see things that are close at all with my driving glasses, I pretty much always have to carry both pairs with me.
Every so often I can't find the "other" pair. I recently drove to the supermarket, and while I was there I needed to read what was on a tin, so I changed my glasses in the store. Unfortunately, I left the driving glasses there. I realized when I went to the cash register, but someone had picked them up, so I hunted several stores, twice before I finally found them (when they didn't turn up at the supermarket, I thought I may have left them somewhere else). I assume the person who found them had a biggish load of shopping to do, so kept them for a rather long time. When these things happen, you begin to doubt your own sanity!
I occasionally dread what will happen to me. A great-aunt lived to 106. I am about half that age. What will have happened to my sight by that time?