July 12th, 2023

This morning started with me waking up at 6 AM like I did the previous morning. Around 7 AM, I headed up to breakfast with my classmates. After breakfast, we were instructed to go back to our rooms until about 8:30 am when we would participate in the dog day ceremony. Our dog day ceremony was different from the others because it was being filmed by HBO.

During the dog day ceremony, important staff members introduced themselves while also allowing us to share a little bit of our story’s. After the introductions concluded, one of the instructors announced the dog’s names, breeds, colors, and genders to us. For me I was matched with a black lab female named Eve.

After this was done, we were instructed to go back to our rooms so that the instructors could bring us our dogs. I remember shortly after 9:05 AM I got a knock at my door from my instructor with a very excited Eve. After each student was brought their dogs, they were given a half an hour to get to know them. Once the time was up each student was taken individually to complete basic obedience and in door work. These activities were completed so that our dogs could better respond to us as they’re new handlers.

Eve in a sit shortly after Lindsay received her.

Before lunch we were also instructed to give our dogs two cups of water and an opportunity to go outside. 

At about 12 PM I headed up to lunch with Eve. In order to get to lunch safely and without incident, the instructors were nearby to assist. Once getting to our seats, it took each student about 37 times in one meal to settle their dogs. 

 Once everybody finished their meal, we were instructed to go back to our rooms to grab whatever we needed for our afternoon route. This afternoon route consisted of us going to a different lounge in Yorktown in order to work a very simple square route. During this route, our main focus was to improve our footwork and mechanics, while also feeling the leash corrections that our instructors would give periodically through their support leashes.

After this route, we returned to campus where we gave our dogs food, water, and another opportunity to go to the bathroom. Once this was all done, we were given the opportunity to have downtime with our dogs until dinner. 

When heading to dinner, we were instructed to take our dogs with us. Dinner went a little bit better than lunch, but the dogs still got up several times.

After dinner, we went back to our rooms for a little while until we were instructed to give our dogs water and take them out. We were also instructed to take them out one more time around 9:30 PM. After this 9:30 PM bathroom break, I was pretty tired, so I went to bed.

July 11th, 2023

This day started at about 6 AM where I got up and dressed for the day. After getting ready I headed to breakfast. Once everyone finished breakfast we loaded up into the van where we went to White Plains to start our instruction for the day.

When we arrived in White Plains the instructors chose who they were going to take first on a Juno walk. I ended up going second in my group, so since I stayed back, one of the staff members gave me and another student in orientation of the lounge.   

Once the other student got back, we switched, and I went out on my Juno walk. It felt odd doing this at first, but as time went on, it felt more natural. I was also pleasantly surprised that I was able to complete this Juno walk and later work the dog that my instructors had in mind for me on my left side, which meant that I would not need the help of specialized training. I also realized that all of the additional occupational therapy that I had completed during my undergraduate degree paid off. 

After finishing my Juno walk one of the instructors decided to bring in the dogs that we would be walking with after lunch so that we could get to know them. You might be thinking that they mentioned the dog’s names to us, but no, we use the name Juno for each dog, since we didn’t know their names yet. It wouldn’t be until the next morning when we would learn their names. Shortly after having the dogs with us, we were able to get them to settle. This especially helped because we had them with us while eating lunch.

After lunch, I went on my first walk with a yellow lab female. It definitely felt very different than using a cane because she was able to get me around the obstacles that my cane would come in contact with. Although she was able to get me around obstacles, my instructor and I realized very quickly that this may not be the dog for me. She walked about three paces slower than I did. 

In guide work having a dog that is able to match a person's pace is extremely important because as a team, we should be walking at the same pace. As a result of this dog not walking at my pace, I knew that I would most likely have to walk with a second dog at some point that day. 

After doing this walk, we gave the dogs back to the instructors so that they could go back in the van. Once we gave the dogs back to the instructors, they gave us an obedience lesson on how to do proper leash corrections, which is a skill that we were going to need once we received our dogs the next day. 

After this lesson was completed, we headed back to campus to do potential walks with second dogs. In my case, this is exactly what I did because the original dog that I walked with was not the right one. The second dog, however, that I walked with was amazing. She gave me the ability to walk at a pace that I haven’t been able to comfortably in at least 10 years, if not more. I love how she was able to match my pace perfectly and was able to stop at landmarks that I didn’t even know were there. After doing this walk, my instructor asked me if she was the one and I confidently said yes.

After this second dog walk my classmates and I had a meeting with the client experience team. This meeting was to go over the responsibilities of the client experience team, as well as to discuss an extra waiver we had to sign because part of my class was being filmed for an HBO documentary.

Once all of this was completed, we had some downtime before dinner. 

Around 6 PM I headed up to dinner with my classmates. During dinner, we got to meet our sixth classmate as she wasn’t able to get a flight the previous day. After dinner, we had more downtime, but it was really hard because we knew potentially who our dogs were, but we had no idea what their names were.

July 10th, 2023

Early in the morning on July 10 I landed at JFK airport after my redeye flight. During this flight, I may have gotten three hours of sleep. Once I landed, I had assistance from the plane to baggage claim in order to get my belongings. From there, I was greeted by staff from Guiding Eyes. 

Once I had all of my baggage, we headed to Dunkin so that I could grab breakfast. From there, we headed to campus. Once arriving on campus, I was given a tour of my room and then took a much-needed nap. After my nap, I was able to get ready for the day and then I got lunch. 

After lunch, a couple classmates and I had a tour of campus, so that we knew where everything was. Once the tours were completed, we were given the opportunity to have some free time to unpack and settle in.

Around 4 PM the real festivities began where we were given our leashes, and basic equipment was explained. At this time also we were given the preliminary gender and breed of the dogs we would receive on Wednesday. Before receiving our dogs on Wednesday, we would do a test walk with them the next day along with another Juno walk. 

Once this lecture was completed, we were given more free time before dinner. During dinner, I got to know my classmates more.

After dinner, we did a fire drill to ensure that in the event of an emergency we knew where to go. Shortly after the fire drill, I got ready for bed because I was extremely exhausted after the limited sleep that I had the night before.

July 9th, 2023

On this day, @s.e.l.z wanted to see me before I went on this adventure, so @loveulieslie and I picked her up to go get coffee at @Philzcoffee. Little did we all know it was going to be more than coffee. We got coffee, went to Target twice, got our hair done, went to get lunch, then went home. They both don’t realize how much I needed all of these events in this trip. You see, I needed things to keep my mind off of the events of the redeye flight that I would be taking later that evening. Without them, I think I would’ve done something I would have regretted and chickened out and not gotten on the redeye flight to go on this life-changing adventure. 

Lindsay sitting in a salon chair.

Three cups of Phiz coffee.

It also didn’t help that the life-changing adventure that I was about to go on was happening on my 13-year brain surgery anniversary, which was an event that not only changed my life forever, but also changed the way I saw the world. After the surgery, I wasn’t able to see everything that I was able to prior to, but I was grateful to be alive.

When I got home, I packed up the last bit of stuff that I needed to and headed to the airport. 

Once at the airport, my dad assisted me in getting my baggage sorted and to my gate. In doing so, we ran into another blind traveler, who happened to be on my flight as well. As a result of a coincidence, we asked if they were going to Guiding Eyes as well, but it just so happened that this person who lived in now Manhattan at one time in their life, was a neighbor of the Guiding Eyes for the blind CEO. In addition to having this wonderful encounter, I also had an amazing flight attendant from Delta by the name of Olivia. It just so happens that when she lived in Michigan one of her teacher’s raised puppies for Leader Dog for the Blind while she was in school, so she realized the impact that this adventure was going to have on my life.

July 7th, 2023

On this day, I flew home from the 2023 National Federation of the Blind convention. After this flight @shelbi_nichole and I met our rides to go home. As we prepared to leave, she hugged me, and said “You're going on the best adventure of your life.” At that moment, I didn’t completely believe her, as I was a whole host of emotions. These emotions included nerves, fear, and a lot of unknowns.

July 5th-7th, 2023

During these three days, I had several phone calls and emails with the nursing staff, client experience team, and even the training team. I was so grateful for these calls and emails, as this was just their way of getting to know me as an incoming student. After each call and email, I kept having this feeling of, holy crap, this is actually happening. I particularly remember tapping @shelbi_nichole on the shoulder during the NFB banquet, to ask her if she knew someone that I had just gotten an email from. When I told her his name she said, “He’s amazing, is that your instructor?” I proceeded to say “yes, I think so.” Her later response was, “You are in amazing hands, don’t mess it up.” What she really meant was “Get on that plane to NY on Sunday and do not chicken out because if you do, you’ll regret it.”

July 3rd, 2023

@shelbi_nichole and I found ourselves once again at the exhibit hall at the National Federation of the Blind convention, this year though, it was a little different. You see, I made the mistake of wearing my name badge as I walked up to the Guiding Eyes table and the person working the table said “oh, we have a VIP.” At that moment, I knew I couldn’t just hide. 

After I got spotted, in typical @shelbi_nichole fashion she asked, “so can you tell us anything about her dog?” Thankfully, the person at the table gave us a generic answer of “It has four legs and fur.,” which I was forever grateful for because I wanted no hints. I wanted to go into this journey with a very open mind.

June 29th, 2023

On this day, as I was sitting on a plane flying to Houston for the National Federation of the Blind summer convention for 2023, I got an email asking which flight time and airports I would prefer for my flights to class. Ultimately, because I knew that I was going to be traveling the furthest I chose to take a redeye and to fly out of LAX.

June 2nd to 10th, 2023

I received an email asking if I would be willing to accept a class date of July 10 to July 29, 2023. I without hesitation said yes, but also asked if these dates were confirmed because I had to make a tough decision to drop my summer classes. On June 10th I found out for sure that I would be in this July class. Once I found that out. I dropped my summer classes and didn’t look back.

April 6th, 2023

During my break at work, I contacted Guiding Eyes to see what summer classes would look like. During this conversation, I was told that there was a potential summer class in May, June, July, and August. I was, of course, given dates for these classes, but ultimately due to my busy summer schedule I chose to either do the July 10 to July 29 class or the July 31st to August 11th class. In choosing these classes, I was told that I would hear more about which class I would most likely be in in early June. I also knew in early June that I would have to make the potential hard decision to drop my summer courses as there was no way I could complete full days of guide dog training while taking Zoom classes from 7:30 pm-10pm four days a week and also complete homework for these classes.

April 5th, 2023

After waking up from an afternoon power nap, I happened to look at my email to see if there was anything I needed to address. In doing so I had to take a double look because I was not sure if I was reading the sender information correctly, but in fact I was. This email was from the admissions team at Guiding Eyes asking if I would be willing to go into a class sometime this summer. When I saw this email, I knew that the next morning I was going to have to call them and see what summer classes would look like. I was not only going to have to do that, but I was going to have to let my immediate family know what was about to change.

Late March 2023

At this point, I had to follow up with Guiding Eyes to see where I was on the waitlist, since I had an important decision to make. This decision included whether or not I was going to take two of the summer courses that I needed for my grad school program. After talking to someone on the client experience team, they advised me to enroll in classes regardless because they didn’t know yet if they would have a dog ready for me or not and they did not want me getting behind in school as a result of waiting.

September 2022

I had emailed the Guiding Eyes admissions team thanking them for giving me this opportunity while also letting them know about my upcoming school plans. I had to wait until September to do this since I had to let my grad school advisor know of this life-changing opportunity and how it would impact my future courses. After discussing this, it was determined that I would most likely have availability to go to Guiding Eyes either in summer 2023 or fall 2023. What really helped in this situation is that I was on a plan where I was only taking two grad school classes per semester, which also meant that I had flexibility in my schedule for either upcoming semester.

July 29th, 2023

This was a typical Friday in my office, where I was just trying to wrap up things for the week in order to have a peaceful weekend. For the last couple weeks though, I had the habit of constantly refreshing my personal email during work hours, as I knew an email from Guiding Eyes was going to come most likely during my work hours since they’re three hours ahead of me. It just so happens that I was right, at about 9:30 in the morning on this day I got an email stating that I was accepted to Guiding Eyes. Although I was accepted, I was most likely going to have to wait 12 to 14 months in order to receive a class date due to the backlog of the pandemic. 

After seeing this email, I remember sending a message to my team in the office letting them know that I had gotten accepted. Everybody in the office was extremely excited for this new chapter. I also remember messaging my director and associate Director telling them that I needed to take some time to reflect on this very important email that I had sitting in my inbox.

July 5th, 2022

On this day, I was attending the National Federation of the Blind’s 2022 Convention. While attending this convention, I had the opportunity to go to the exhibit hall, where I was able to meet staff members from Guiding Eyes. It just so happens as @shelbi_nichole reminded me after saying “You realize who you did that Juno walk with?” My response, of course, was no, because I didn’t know many of the staff members who worked there and there was also a lot going on, as I did my Juno walk. It just so happens that at the time, the person who did the second Juno walk was the head of admissions. When I found that out, I didn’t know whether to feel happy or even more nervous.

June 3rd, 2022

On this day, I had my home interview with Guiding Eyes. If I wasn’t nervous enough about the interview itself, my dad mentioned that he had to be home because my brother was going to be playing on the radio at the same time as my home interview was happening. Overall, the interview itself went better than I expected despite everything going on that morning. 

During the interview, I was asked questions about my lifestyle, where I saw myself in a year, five years, etc. Then after the interview portion was completed, I went on a walk to show my cane skills and practice with Juno. For the first part of this route, I had to show that I could independently go to a destination using my cane. On the way back, I was able to do a Juno walk. A Juno walk consists of the handler, holding the handle end of the harness and the instructor, holding the harness body. The reason this is done is to help the handler feel what it would feel like to be guided by a dog. At first it felt very different from my cane, but as time went on, I got used to the feeling of going around objects instead of running into them.

When I returned from this walk, I was told that I did really well. I was also told that I should hear within the next six weeks whether or not I would be accepted into the program at Guiding Eyes. Being given this information so soon after finishing the Juno walk gave me some sense of hope that this just might work this time, as the last time I was told shortly after my Juno walk that the particular organization, I was going through was not going to be able to help me.

May 31, 2022

Not even 24 hours after all of this documentation was submitted I got a call from my local GDMI asking if she could come to see me the next week. Being in shock to get that call so quickly was an understatement. I was hoping to have a couple weeks before I had to tell my dad what I was doing. You see, I hadn’t told him even until up to this point that I was applying for a guide dog. It wasn’t until after I confirmed an appointment for that next week that I had to make a phone call to him to let him know, as we were gonna have to get the house in order. He was, of course, really happy that we were going to go on this journey once again, but I was just really nervous about this part of the process, as this is where my application stopped the last time.

Late April-May 2022

After completing the initial application, I had to submit a number of documents, including medical documentation, an eye report, an orientation and mobility (O&M) report, and recommendations. I was able to complete all of this documentation in the matter of six weeks. I got very lucky in that all of my medical appointments happened in this six-week period after applying. It also helped that the (O&M) instructor that did my documentation is also a really good friend and classmate, so we are in constant communication.

If having a good friend and classmate, who was also an (O&M) instructor was not a sign enough to apply for a guide dog at this point in my life, then having a dangerous encounter with a six-lane intersection should have been sign enough. I mention this fact because as I was walking from my office at the university to one of my routine ophthalmology appointments, I almost did not make it across this six-lane intersection. As this encounter happened, I could only think “I am so grateful I have the needed forms in my bag for my ophthalmology appointment to take the next step on this life changing adventure.” Although I had this near miss with this intersection I in no way shared this experience with my ophthalmologist, but I remember mentioning it to my dad as he had picked me up after.

April 18th, 2022

On April 18th, 2022, I applied. This was not after a trip to Chicago with a few other guide dog users as part of the National Association of Blind Students Midwest student seminar. During this trip, I realized it was really time for me to apply for a guide dog, especially because I couldn’t keep up with the other guide dog users. After completing this application, I texted @shelbi_nichole saying “ok, I bit the bullet.” Her response was almost immediately with “Yay!” As she knew exactly what I was referring to.

February 2022

As a result of starting and stopping my application several times the Guiding Eyes admissions team saw this, so in about February 2022 they randomly called me and said, “we see you have a started application, if you would like to proceed, please finish the application because our lists are kind of long right now.” Although I did get the call, I was still extremely on the fence, so in about March 2022 I sent an additional text to my local GDMI asking her to look over some documentation about my eye conditions to ensure that I would be qualified. After doing so, I realized that most likely I would be.