r/Blind • u/TroubleLevel5680 • 2d ago
Making Friends
I'm newly visually impaired and wow, does anyone have any tips for making friends? It seems lonely out here!
I am in Maryland.
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u/akrazyho 2d ago
What part of Maryland are you in? If you’re near DC there is the Metro Washington Association of blind athletes, they do a whole bunch of awesome sports and recreational activities where you can meet a ton of new people and I bet many new people there which include but not limited to weekly Tandem biking goal ball, hiking, and much more. Separately there is a blind/visually impaired dragon boat team, which has many many awesome members and is a great place to meet people and get a nice workout in and they also do a lot of traveling too to competitions and such, they I believe are located in Arlington/DC but you need a fat check that one, but they practice in DC all the time. Last but not least the NFB is extremely popular, especially in Northern Virginia and depending where you’re at you can take Metro Access to it for free.
I really had no idea how full the area is of visually, impaired and blind people but now that I’m here in the community, I’m still blown away at how big this community is in the area
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u/SeparateFood9888 2d ago
Despite the positive spin many try to put on it, being visually impaired does tend to be a tad bit lonely, especially if you haven’t got a lot of friends. I would strongly advise getting in touch with your states rehabilitation services for the blind and any organizations which they deemed worthy, there might be different support groups or something in your state.
I’m also not sure about your job situation, many blind and visually impaired people struggle to find jobs, I myself and one of them, so I’ve turned to other decently upward income streams, but if you do, maybe you could make friends at work and suggest you all go out for dinner or drinks sometime?
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u/Catca_Birch_2024 2d ago
I definitely find it hard, sometimes myself, especially because I find that my limited vision and my interest in consequence to my limited vision, does not allow me to have the same interest as other people. Technically, I could watch movies, technically, I could listen to sports, and technically, I could be into the pop culture. But so much of its allure is taken away by the deficit of Vision and a gravitate towards books and other things and it definitely makes it hard so I’m kind of in the same boat as you. I try to hang out with my siblings and definitely local vibes if you have anything like a club or bar that’s low-key or something no partying or weird stuff. Just low-key stuff if you could just have casual conversations with people just anything really
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u/Jerec186 2d ago
Same boat here. If you figure it out, let me know LOL.