Craig Fitzpatrick

So for all of us that have gone through that during life, so not born with a visual impairment that was our reality for all of life, there's this adjustment period.

And then there's a point when you hit the bottom.

And hopefully...

That is your bottom.

And then you begin regaining, not just finding ways to adapt your abilities to do things you couldn't figure out more quickly, even simple things like tying your shoes or clipping your toenails.

It's almost like being a kid again in some ways and having to learn things all over again.

reading, especially for me, things in the workplace because I work in tech and it took me a long time because technologies are changing so quickly to be able to catch up to what kind of a career might be possible for me.

But I really started bottoming out right around the time that I found that ice skating class.

And I feel like my timeframe of turning my life around really mirrored the timeframe when I found hockey and when hockey's community found me.

Yeah.

Well, and yeah, pun intended.

I like the metaphor.

So...

And that was how it was for me.

So I think what some of us that are going through vision loss or our brains catching up to the diagnosis well after the main thrust of the vision loss has occurred, what a lot of us miss is the impact that social engagement can have on your state of mind.

And I say all the time, being blind is a team sport.

you realize that there are some things that you can't do yourself, some things that you probably shouldn't do yourself.

Like for me, that's walking down a street or through an airport without a blind cane, among other things.

And then there are things that you still can do for yourself, but with adaptations.

The fourth thing that I'll add to that list is what can I do for others?