The tough question: How is life for you living with a visual impairment?

This question was asked of me many times. I didn't know how to respond or react to it. Usually I would walk off this conversation by saying "So far so good, I'm alive and that's all that matters"

The question comes back to me in all honesty when I am left alone with my thoughts. I start to answer this question to myself with the many things that frustrate me as a person who is blind. I can't ride, which was my passion when I had sight, I can't indulge in appreciating nature or any form of visual entertainment by which I mean the full experience of a movie or playing games on a console like my PS2, I have to plan ahead, friends won't call me out when they are out for drinks, I am no longer spontaneous by which I mean pack my bags and leave to any place/ anytime, I have to deal with many different forms of discrimination most of which I don't notice or make a big deal out of but it happens and I know it, I don't enjoy shopping for clothes and accessories anymore because of the variant shades of colors I need to choke from my memory etc. I am sorry but I am just being candid about it, the list has more to it but for now, you get the "picture" or the thousand words it speaks.

But then suddenly out of nowhere I start to think this way: I think I'm pretty happy on the whole. I have a good family around me, a very enjoyable and worthwhile job, a roof over my head and enough money to live on. The improvements in technology, some great friends and colleagues who I am appreciative about, a beautiful and healthy daughter. life for me is different everyday so I am far away from having a boring life, I still have options to entertain myself with a good collection of audio books, the internet and other forms of media like amazon music & movies and yes as of now most of my time goes in playing with the little one which gives me great satisfaction. Sometimes I feel that I am in a James Bond movie minus the pretty girls but danger every corner and new challenges to deal with; there is much comedy as bonus. 

I say to myself that blindness isn't that bad; There are loads of other medical conditions that make life more challenging than it already is. I know people who can't go out in certain temperatures because of skin conditions, people with anxiety disorders who can't be in crowds, people who are deprived of basic needs, war torn families and lives, leprosy where you are just abandoned by the whole planet etc. I must admit that if you said you'd give me sight but take away my hearing, or paralyse me, I'd stick as I am!

I am trying to send out a message in this post; I can't get my mind to it yet but if you have succeeded in getting the message please be helpful and kind enough to share this post with more readers.