Napped Past Napcakes )Blind Journal) · 12:01pm May 23rd, 2017
Coping With Blindness Through Pony
Enterplay LLC announced Series 4 Trading Cards for My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic in August 2016. It was during this time the last of my vision was leaving me. However I intended to make the most of it by commiting to collecting at least the core set of the cards no matter what.
There was an art contest to have your own card put into the set. What you see is a card that Ari Kunofsky and I developed. With help from Enterplay staff I was able to fill out the submission form so we could have a chance of contributing to the set.
Despite likely not winning the contest I am very happy Ari and I entered and Enterplay made it possible for us to do so.
With my vision lost this past December I had to make a few hard choices. One was whether I really should still commit to collecting the Series 4 trading cards.
Knowing I’d never be able to watch the DVDs I owned, without having help, ever again, I decided to sell off all my MLP: FiM season sets. This gave me the necessary funds to pre-order two boxes of cards while also purchasing episodes of MLP on my iPhone, which does allow me to watch episodes by my own abilities through assistive technology.
The cards arrived yesterday and I could not have been happier. My wife went through both boxes, described the cards, and helped me to sleeve as much of the set as I got into my binder. I was able to mentally visualize all of the cards to the point I forgot I was blind at all. The whole experience reminded me of how truly important it is to still pursue interests even if a limitation may require you to do so in another way.
I cry tears of joy as I finish this journal. Blindness has not taken away who or what I am. Nor will it ever stop me from enjoying life to its absolute fullest. I may no longer be able to do things as I once did but I will not lose what makes me happy as a result.
Thank you all for your support as I adapt to total blindness. There are certainly many struggles ahead but I know I will make it through all of them through self determination along with the love of my wife and son coupled with your friendships.
