Sorry it’s taken me so long to reply. I haven’t been around much.

Anyway, the reason I asked that is because you’re thinking about things in the wrong way. This happened to you and you’ve decided you can’t do what you’re used to doing. It’s a reasonable response, and I can see how you would go there. I want you to try thinking about your hobbies with a different mindset. Instead of saying, “I can’t do this,” ask yourself, “how can I modify this so I can do it?”

I’m lucky. I was born blind. I didn’t have to relearn everything. Some of my hobbies are fishing, hunting, playing guitar, grilling and smoking meat, and I used to ride bulls. I’m sure you have questions, so let’s go through them.

Fishing is easy. You can do it all by feel. I probably cut more line than Most people when I get caught up in brush, but, other than that, there’s nothing stopping someone.

I know you’re wondering how I hunt. It’s obviously something I can’t do responsibly alone. To answer your first question, yes, I am completely blind. I have a small bit of light perception, but it doesn’t help much. When hunting with a rifle or a crossbow I use a smart scope. It connects to someone’s phone so that they can look at their screen and whisper directions to me. Before that, I would have someone look over my shoulder.

I used to use an offset smoker for grilling and smoking meat. The hardest part of that was managing the fire. My temperature swings were bigger than I would like because I couldn’t see what the fire was doing. I was always reactive instead of proactive. I recently got a pellet smoker to resolve that problem. I can see and adjust the temperature of the grill and the meat probes on my iPhone.

I don’t have a great ear, so I’m not a very good guitar picker. I really haven’t picked it up much in the last several years.

They say there’s a fine line between brave and stupid, and my blind ass obviously didn’t see it when I dove over it head first. How did I ride bulls? I turned off my brain, and I didn’t think about how stupid I was. Seriously, riding wasn’t difficult. I could feel which way he was moving. Luckily, I wasn’t ever put into any fences. I would either make arrangements with a buddy or one of the bull fighters/clowns to get me out of there once I was off of the bull.

The only constant in life is change. Just because this change is bigger than most doesn’t mean you have to reboot your life. Don’t give up what you love doing. Change how you do what you love.

What did you like about playing video games? The story? The competition? Talking (or trash-talking) with others? The music? I’d maybe start there. That may help you find something that fills the same bucket for you.