It's difficult to describe what the effect of becoming a licensed optician could mean in my life without acknowledging my experience with it thus far. My grandparents started a local optical out of their car nearly 15 years before my birth. Being the eldest grandchild meant “working” in the shop after it had grown into the brick and mortar store that it still currently is, 53 years later. I was barely school age when one might find me there after school assembling customer care bags with lens cleaner and cloths, arranging cases by designer, and playing with the scarves my grandmother used when determining a patients color season. I remember watching, intently, as my grandpa fitted contact lenses on young athletes affording them the ability to play sports without worrying about their spectacles. I'd learn more from him as he dispensed frames to grateful patients than just what being an optician technically is. I watched him give people sight. Recently a long standing patient told me “I always felt better about myself… and the world, after spending some time with your grandpa every year when I got new glasses.” What a testament of the legacy I was lucky enough to watch him create! My uncle bought the business from my grandpa when he retired and has continued that tradition. From working his way up licensing executive boards, to setting protocols and lobbying legislature to protect the licensing of local opticians, he has grown the business into the success that it still continues to be today. And yet, everything remains the same inside the shop. The patients still come in the back door, sit down by the fire with a cup of coffee, and share their lives with us. Not only do they continue to entrust us with their vision needs; but also to provide a level of patient care that is unmatched. My desire in becoming licensed is to seamlessly continue the level of personalized service, with the latest material technology and the highest quality products that I believe everyone deserves; for many more generations to come. I plan on doing this by maintaining the relationships that 2 generations have fostered with patients, labs, sales reps, boards and educators; and of course, taking my children to work at the shop whenever it is appropriate. (My 10 year old son “sold” a frame to a satisified patient last week!) Customer service is alive and well in Akron, Ohio.