She flew a plane. I am still wrapping my mind around the fact that my 10 year old daughter who has Down syndrome actually flew a plane. I was planning on writing a post with in the first week of the flight but I am still absorbing the affect of this event.
It took a day or so to recover from that whirlwind trip to Tucson. Up at 3:00 AM, out the door at 4:oo AM drive three plus hours, fly, have lunch, drive three plus hours again, to be home by 5:00 PM before the weather hit. It probably didn’t help that the following morning, some kind of stomach bug crept it’s way into the family. Me being the first to fall.
The Precursor
How did this happen? Jillian is one of many children who attend Coyote Springs Elementary School in the Humboldt Unified School District and I couldn’t be more excited. You see, Jillian and her little brother, Ben, are receiving an inclusive education. What does that mean? It means, Jillian is enrolled in a general education fifth grade class with all of her “typical” peers. It means, she is exposed to not only the same education as her “typical” peers but also the same social interaction. It means she has the chance to have meaningful relationships with friends her own age. It means, she gets the same opportunities that ALL of the other fifth graders in the school get. In this case, it means she was able to participate in the “Wright Flight” program which included setting and achieving a personal goal, then being rewarded with the opportunity to take off in an airplane and having the chance to fly it.
The Experience
It was this day, Saturday, January 5th, 2019 that Jillian was scheduled to fly and that she did. She soared through the sky over neighborhoods, old and new mines. She scouted for huge dump trucks and counted swimming pools. She had an amazing time.
It was Sunday, though, the day after the flight, that we began to notice a change in Jillian. It was even more evident when she walked through the doorway after school on Monday. By the time dinner rolled around the metamorphosis was blatant.
The Aftermath
Could it have been her hands on the controls of the flying machine taking it up to 6,000 feet in the air? Maybe it was the continuous videoing and the knowledge of others viewing her accomplishment? All I know is something clicked. My daughter, once painfully reserved and a steadfast opponent to anything out of the ordinary, began to voluntarily tell us about her day. She did not allow others to interrupt her. She spoke with a confidence and a clarity that I had not witnessed from her until this moment. It was as if she needed to give herself permission to allow her voice to be heard.
There I was, hanging on every word she uttered, with tears in my eyes and a song in my heart. I couldn’t think, all I could do was listen. I was stunned into silence. To this day, I continue to be awestruck. I continue to process just what happened in that Cessna far above the ground in my little girl’s heart, mind and soul. I continue to experience the “new” Jillian because what we witnessed would not be a temporary shift, it was a life changing event.
The Revelation
Through out the following week I discussed the results of this day with Jillian’s teachers. I explained the voice she had discovered as well as her new found confidence and asked if they had seen a difference in my daughter. Their answers all had something to do with a growing sense of independence for Jillian.
As I described how Mr. Ryan, Jillian’s co-pilot, removed his hands from the yoke to allow Jillian to make a few turns. He would tell her how to turn while watching her closely. Then, if needed, he would adjust for her. It was Mr. K, Jillian’s “special education” teacher who put the analogy together. That is what life should be like for my daughter. The adults in her life should allow her to make the turns while watching closely. Then, only if it is needed, help her to make adjustments
The Future
Here I am a week and a half later writing about something that, still, I am not 100% understanding. Something that continues to feel like a dream. I don’t want to lose this moment. I want to remember to expect the unexpected, to Dream Bigger for Jillian as well as the rest of the Schulze clan. I want to live in the “Life Changing” moments and know that there are dreams, that I don’t know I have for my children, about to be fulfilled.
