Leap of Faith
My lifetime of total blindness constantly offers me opportunities to challenge and inspire people of all ages to set significant goals and to follow through with an action plan. For several years, I had the privilege of speaking with a bright group of high school seniors who were together for a three-day business program called Camp Enterprise. I will never forget the time I was finishing my talk in a segment I call “Ask the Blind Guy.” This is my audience's opportunity to indulge their curiosity with questions about the daily experiences of a person without sight. I can usually encourage people to be comfortable in asking what they want to know. During this occasion, I was asked something which I had never been asked before: "Blake, is there anything you haven't done on your list of adventures that you want to experience? I blurted out the first response that came to mind: Skydiving. I told them that going skydiving had fascinated me for many years, but looking back on the commute home, I couldn’t remember ever wanting to skydive.
Two weeks later, I received a surprise call from Charles with the Rotary Club of Dallas. Charles said, “We are sponsoring you on a skydive, so when can you go?” My first thought was, “Wow! Did I really say I wanted to skydive?" I immediately realized I had, and now it was time for me to follow through with my impulsive response. We established the best time for the adventure to take place, when I could be accompanied by a willing and qualified instructor.
Surprisingly, I became more excited and less nervous each day. As I thought about this somewhat fearful goal of skydiving, I began envisioning how it could help me to inspire people to dive into their goals and face their fears in life. I was grateful to be able to go in one day before my jump, because it was imperative to have some training on how to position my body and what I should generally expect. This valuable education came from my instructor, Ernie Long. Frequent sky divers took special interest in my upcoming experience. I enjoyed their eagerness to share knowledge. They could hardly wait to see me encounter what they knew would be a blast for a blind guy, or anyone for that matter. I completed the forms that mentioned death in several places. When I returned home, I called friends and family to state that I expected complete safety, but if something should happen, I wanted them to know how much I cared about our relationship. I knew that if I did have an accident, that I was ready to leave this phase of life and be taken to my permanent home. So I subsequently paid our bills in advance and even showed my wife Jennifer how to take care of them online using our computer and telephone automation.
I asked my good friends Glen and JD if they would make a video recording of this extraordinary event. They quickly agreed and came along on the adventure.
The day of the special occasion, Glen and I drove out to a peaceful and beautiful wooded area he often walked through to record my feelings before this event took place. It was a beautiful Saturday morning without a cloud in the sky. The winds were gently blowing at eight miles per hour. Glen's awesome interview also captured in audio the wonderful sounds of nature, and even a distant noise of our public light rail transportation train passing by.
After our extraordinary start to an exciting Saturday, we got into Glen's car and proceeded to find Skydive Dallas. I'll never forget how much I enjoyed our one hour drive and visit up to Whitewright, TX. Glen and I talked about the meaning of our life that beautiful morning. We arrived ahead of schedule and enjoyed a quick bite for lunch. Glen and I then walked outside to observe all of the other people skydiving. Our outside temperature was a warm 88 degrees, which felt just right with the light breeze.
JD soon arrived. The Dallas Morning News had graciously agreed to write my story. I got a detailed interview from a pleasant lady with the cool memorable name, Holly Hacker.
Now it was finally time to climb into the plane, with 23 tightly fitted sky divers. I was excited to at last be taking that leap of faith I had anticipated throughout the past two weeks. I wouldn’t be in the unknown skydiving zone much longer. I was alert and attentive as we climbed up to 13,500 feet, and prepared to jump with my experienced instructor Ernie Long.
Our leap into the air was like no other feeling I have ever felt before. For one, the temperature is thirty degrees cooler at 13,500 feet than it is on the ground. So what had been a balmy 88 degrees was now an exhilarating 58 in the sky. We hit the air at about 140 miles per hour, and maintained that momentum as we dropped for sixty seconds. The rapidly changing pressure caused me to temporarily, and a little painfully, lose my hearing. That part didn’t take away my rush of memorable excitement. Following one full minute of free-falling, our parachute deployed. I then had an opportunity to carry out hearing retrieval tricks as if I were descending from the sky in a jet for landing. My instructor, Ernie, began performing exhilarating maneuvers, showing me how much control he had in steering us with the steering strings attached to our parachute. I got a kick out of quickly turning left, then right, followed by moving backwards and forwards. “Wow!” I exclaimed.
When we comfortably and safely landed, all of my spectators applauded. This exceptional experience is among my most exciting, and most valuable, in my lifetime to date. Each time I reflect upon the experience it seems I learn another lesson in how to live my life more fully and to inspire others to enjoy the same.
I'm more determined than ever to motivate people to be the best they can be in finding joy in life at work, at home, and in the community, each and every day.
Glen used his remarkable talent by taking the amazing pictures which he and JD took and produced ten- and five-minute videos showing and telling my unique story. This keepsake production will always encourage people to dive in and face those fears, goals, and challenges which inevitably come our way in life. Another twist to the story occurred 5 years ago when I lost my good friend Glen from a heart attack. I was concerned I wouldn’t enjoy hearing this experience played back on the video that I show when speaking to people about diving in to their goals and challenges. Quite the opposite has happened, though, as I smile each time I hear Glen, and recall our best bonding time ever. Please make memories with those you love. These thoughts are part of our happiness.
Without a doubt, when we dive into our goals and face our challenges, it can resemble my skydive experience by becoming, "Faith and fun all in one!”
Here’s a link, to the short video of this special experience: http://blakelindsay.com/videos/leap-of-faith/