Light specs

In 5th grade I was a part of the gifted program at my school. I know impressive, right? Well, I'm not exactly sure what gifted meant or really what the requirements were to be a part of the program. There was a variety of students involved, and I didn't think that I particularly stood out from my normal class. Nonetheless, here I was, small, nervous, disappointed to be pulled away from my friends, and apparently "gifted." Our teacher was rather quirky, I can't remember her name... Ms. Kinsley, Kenny, Kensington? She resembled Ms. Frizzle from The Magic School Bus. One of our projects for the year was to invent something. Yep, that's it, invent something. No further guidelines or parameters. We had full freedom to interpret as we wished. Ok, I'm a creative person, and I was a creative kid, but I needed some structure! Some limits, some direction! She merely encouraged us to think practically (what could be useful to us or someone we knew?) yet be unafraid to move out of the box and take a risk. Here we go. "Dad! Help me, pleeeeease!" He did help me. He was my inspiration. Well, really it was his poor eye sight, his "librarian" reading glasses as we called them, and his love to read. What I thought he needed was ability to read in the dark. And what better to help him than little light bulbs permanently attached to his glasses that he could turn on with just a click of a button? Voila! Light! Here's how I pitched it: Desire to read but don't want to turn on a light and disturb others? No lamp nearby your favorite reading spot? Fret no more! Light specs are here! Well, I didn't exactly have a name for them but Light Specs is what I was searching for. It's probably what I would have come up with had my brain not been totally fried by "inventing" something in the first place. My teacher was only semi-impressed. The idea seemed only semi-original to her. What!? Unbelievable. I should have disregarded her criticism and ran with it, I should have pitched it to a group other than my odd little gifted class because today, I could be making the big bucks. See, Foster Grant got their hands on this gem of an idea and developed it. Now they sell Light Specs, and they're the real deal! Light where you need it. So simple. A 5th grader could have come up with it. What could have been my claim to fame is now my claim to shame. Oh, what could have been! Sorry Daddy-o.