July 18th, 2023

On this day as I had the previous days, I got up at 6 am and got myself ready before taking Eve out and feeding her at 7 am. After she ate, we headed up to breakfast. Once everyone was done with breakfast, we all completed an obedience routine. 

After our obedience routine concluded, we were instructed to grab our stuff to head to one of the satellite lounges. 

On this day, I went second. Before my route, my instructor asked me how I would feel about going to target this day. I said sure, I actually wanted to get Eve a different toy to see how she would do. 

We headed out on a route, which went extremely well. She was able to navigate me through Target and even to the toy section with minimal distraction. I grabbed what I needed, and we headed to the cash register to pay.

When we got outside of Target, I said to my instructor “I feel a drop of water.” Shortly thereafter, my instructor said I do too. As we continued on our route, we experienced quite the downpour. Shortly before this downpour occurred, I was walking under a construction scaffolding where one of the workers was clapping and cheering us on. I could not see exactly what this worker was doing until my instructor showed me when we reached our crossing. 

After this crossing the class supervisor was following us at a distance. When she caught up to us, she asked if I wanted to stop and get a ride back to campus. I quickly obliged, especially because not too long after that we heard thunder. This was all because the one day that I left my jacket behind it rained. I learned the hard way in this instance, to always have my rain jacket in my backpack just in case it started  raining as we were on route.

One of the other class instructors picked us all up before heading back to the lounge to pick everyone else up. Once we got back to campus, we gave our dogs water and a bathroom break then headed up to lunch. 

After everyone finished lunch, we went back to our rooms to prepare for a lecture on traffic checks. During this lecture, one of the class instructors drove a shopping cart at each team, as we were walking past her in order to simulate what our dog should do in the event of an obstacle coming towards us, such as a moving vehicle. This was all to prepare us for our official traffic check that we would have on Friday.

After this lecture, we were given some downtime before 4 PM when we had to feed and give our dogs a bathroom break. Once this concluded, we had more downtime until 6 PM for dinner.  After dinner, we had a little more downtime before having to give our dogs water and another bathroom break. We gave our dogs a final bathroom break around 9 PM before going to bed.

July 17th, 2023

On this day, I got up at 6 AM like the normal routine that I have been doing for the previous week. At 7 AM I took Eve out to the bathroom, then I gave her food and water. Once that was all done, I headed up to breakfast. When everyone finished breakfast, we were instructed to go and complete our daily obedience lesson. During this obedience lesson, we had more dog distractions, as well as the other obedience exercises that we had been doing the previous week. 

When the obedience session was over, we were instructed to grab our stuff in order to load up in the vans to head to the satellite campus that we had been working at the previous week. On this day, it was my first opportunity to work in an actual store. I did a basic route to a local CVS and got to see Eve’s ability to get me up and down small isles. 

Once everyone finished their route, we headed back to campus for lunch and a veterinary lecture. 

After the veterinary lecture was completed, we got into the vans and headed to the Starbucks that we had been working in the previous Saturday to work a similar route. During this route, I had one of the first pictures taken of Eve and I in front of a local library.

Once this route completed, we headed back to campus where we gave the dogs food, water, and a bathroom break. After this concluded, we were given downtime to complete other tasks that needed to be done before having dinner at 6 PM.

After dinner we took the dogs out and gave them water at about 7:30 PM. Once this was taken care of, we were given more downtime before having to take them out again at about 9 PM. Shortly after this, I headed to bed because I knew there was gonna be another early morning ahead.

July 16th, 2023

Because today was Sunday, we were given the ability to start our day at about 8 AM for breakfast. Before breakfast I got up at about seven to take Eve to the bathroom, give her breakfast, and get myself ready.

Once breakfast was done for both of us. I had free time to rest and relax. I also took the time to update other family and friends that I hadn’t had a chance to throughout the week.

At about 12 we had lunch. After lunch, we had a mini lecture on all of the items that the Guiding Eyes gift shop offers its clients. During this time, I was able to purchase things like extra leashes, booties, T-shirts, tiedowns, and other essentials.

Once we finished this, we were given more downtime until we had to feed and give our dogs a bathroom break. During this downtime I listened to the veterinary lecture in preparation for the live Q&A my class would have with the head veterinarian the next day. 

On this night instead of going up to dinner on campus my classmates and I decided to go to a restaurant called Yorktown Grill. We had a great time talking and getting to know each other more. One of our classmates even surprised us with quite the unexpected surprise. You see, this classmate went out with friends for dinner, but little did we know he actually ended up at the same restaurant we were at. While there he asked the bartender to give us a round of shots. Because the student knew that we were going to be training the next day he told the bartender to give us vodka, but in reality, he told him to give us water. Because all of us girls didn’t know the mischief that the student was getting up to, we thought we were actually getting real shots. After laughing, and realizing what we were doing in the area, the bartender told us the joke.

After this all happened, we had a good laugh, and the student came over to ask us how he did. We all laughed at him and had a feeling that it was him that would do something like this, just based on his humor.

Some of my classmates and I at dinner at Yorktown Grill.

Once we finished dinner, we got in our Ubers and headed back to campus as we had to ensure that our dogs went out at the 7:30 PM bathroom break. After taking Eve out, I took the opportunity to get everything in order for the upcoming week of class. At about 9 PM I took Eve out for the last time before going to bed.

July 15th, 2023

On this day, even though it was Saturday, I still got up at 6 AM and got myself ready. At 7am I took Eve out, fed her and gave her water. Once this was done, we headed up to breakfast. After breakfast, we completed an obedience session similar to what we have been doing throughout the week. Once our obedience session ended, we were instructed to go back to our rooms to grab our stuff in order to go on a short route for the day.

This short route was very different from the routes we have done in the past because this was the first time that we were actually in a public space. On this day, we were stationed in a Starbucks and told to keep our dogs under control. I lucked out in that I actually went first on my route, so when I got back, Eve was very tired. The only challenge we had on this route that neither of us had ever navigated through was duck poop. The instructor that I was working with had to guide me through the duck poop because there was a lot of it.

After we finished our route, Eve and I sat in the Starbucks with our classmates, waiting for the others to finish. Once everyone had finished, we loaded back up into the vans in order to head back to campus for lunch.  

Once lunch was completed, we had a group play session. This group play session went extremely well and was extremely beneficial for our next activities.

Shortly after the group play session ended, we had a lecture on using booties for extreme temperatures. This is one lecture that I struggled with because not having two working hands made it very difficult to put the booties on for the first time. The instructors were more than willing to assist in trying to find ways for this to work. Once I got all the booties on, it was very different to walk with her in them than out of them. It was almost like she was galloping like a horse. 

In addition to learning how to use the booties, we also learned how to brush our dogs as this is an important bonding process for us as handlers. It’s also important to brush our dogs in order to make them look their best as they are in public constantly.

During the lecture on booties and brushing, we were also introduced to the clicker. If you know anything about dog psychology and Pavlov, the clicker is used in a very similar way. Anytime a dog hears a click we were instructed to feed them. Some examples of when we would use the clicker would be to identify chairs, buttons, and other commonly used objects or places. 

After this lecture concluded, we were given free time to complete any tasks we needed before 4 PM when we had to give our dogs food, water, and a bathroom break. 

From about 4 to 6 PM we had more downtime before dinner. After dinner, I took Eve out again and gave her water. At about 9 PM. I took her out one more time before going to bed.

July 14th, 2023

This morning started very similar to the previous morning in that I got up at 6 AM and got Eve taken care of at 7. When she was taken care of, I went up to breakfast. After breakfast, as a class, we had an obedience session which consisted of much of the same skills from the previous day, except there was a dog in the room as we were completing these exercises, which did make things a little more challenging.

Once our obedience session was completed, we were instructed to go back to our rooms, and wait for further instruction, as we were dealing with a thunderstorm this morning. It was a good thing we didn’t go out right away because shortly after returning back to our rooms, the power went out for a short period of time.

At about 9 AM once most of the storm had passed, we were instructed to grab our stuff and load up into the vans for training for the day. Once arriving at the satellite campus, I went second on this day. When completing routes on this day, we completed the same route as we had been doing for the last couple of days, but I definitely had more confidence with this route. I had so much confidence with his route that at one point my instructor said, “Do a wait, I want to try something.” Doing a wait, means to have a dog stop.

At this very moment, I had a lot of thoughts running in my mind, some of these were “Umm, ok what’s next?” “What did I do wrong?” but the most pressing one was “Wait, could he be doing what I think he’s doing? Could he be potentially removing his support leash shortly?” Sure enough, the last thought was correct. I also had thoughts of if this really is happening and can I really do this on my own? But, yes, I could. When this happened, I felt extremely free because it meant that I had full control of the commands given, and the movements within the leash and harness. 

After this support leash was removed our route went extremely smoothly, except I was still losing the leash from time to time. When this continued to happen, I realized that I was going to have to use a different Biothane leash when working, which only has one layer of Biothane instead of two. Before this other leash could be introduced, we returned to the lounge to have lunch and recap about our routes. 

After lunch, I went second again. Being that I was using the leash with only one strip of Biothane my route went so much better. Once we finished our routes for the day, we re-capped our routes and then headed back to campus.

When we arrived back on campus, we gave the dogs food, water, and a bathroom break. Once this was all done, we had downtime until dinner. Usually during this downtime, I would call my parents or other close friends that were following my journey, but on this night, I actually chose to do a yoga session with a volunteer. It was honestly refreshing to do a session like this after such a really hard week. What made it even better is that most of my classmates participated as well. 

After the session was over, we all headed up to dinner with our dogs.

Once dinner was completed, we took our dogs out and gave them water. We took them out one more time at about 9 PM before going to bed.

July 13th, 2023

My day started again at 6 AM. From 6 to 7 I took the time to get myself ready. At 7 AM I offered Eve the ability to go to the bathroom and then I brought her in to get her water and breakfast. She ate. I took her back out to go to the bathroom one more time before heading to breakfast. 

After finishing breakfast, my classmates and I completed our first obedience session of training. This session consisted of us doing a series of sits, downs, touches, and placing our dogs into a healing position.

Once we were done with obedience, we were instructed to go back to our rooms in order to get our harnesses and other things we would need for the training day. Once we had everything, we needed we were instructed to go to the vans to load up to go to a training facility. When we arrived at the training facility, our instructors decided on who they were going to take first. 

On this day, I chose to go first. Overall, the route went well. I was getting more comfortable with the movements of Eve, as well as the different commands that I would have to give. The only challenge I was having due to my limited dexterity in my left hand, was occasionally losing parts of my leash. After this happened a couple times, my instructor and I realized that the leash that I was using was too heavy, so we had to switch it out for a Biothane leash, which made life a little easier.

After returning from my route, I was given the option to take a break and talk with my classmates about their routes. Once the other students returned from their routes, we had lunch. After lunch, we went on our second route of the day, which was very similar to the first.

Once we completed our routes for the day, everyone piled back into the van, and we went back to campus. Once arriving on campus, our instructors gave us a mini lecture on leash corrections, and when they should be given. This was all to prepare us for the events of the next day.

After completing the lecture, we went back to our rooms in order to give our dogs dinner, water, and a bathroom break. Once this was done, we had some downtime before dinner. At about 6 PM, just like the previous day, we went up to dinner. After dinner, we came back and took our dogs out, then had more downtime. At about 9:30pm we took our dogs out for the final time for the evening and went to bed shortly after.

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

 Although I had assistance from the plane to baggage claim I wish this well meaning airport staff did not insist that I get in the wheelchair that he had, so that we could speed through the airport. Thankfully I had the advocacy skills to say that this was not needed, as not all blind and low vision people have these advocacy skills to say no thank you to unwanted assistance. 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.