I Dare me!

It’s amazing how through one simple dare, a person’s life can change dramatically! Back in 1993, I had taken on a part time job selling advertising for a local community paper. I took it on reluctantly in not knowing I had the gift of ‘sales’ hiding within me! My upbeat, energetic and strong verbal skills in two languages were an added bonus leading to a far greater opportunity. One afternoon while dropping off my advertising contracts for that week, I hear my employer on a heated telephone conversation. In simply asking what he was so upset about, he tells me of pressures he was facing to work on an annual pageant production he had committed to. I asked for more details and found out it was no ‘Mickey mouse’ local beauty pageant, but an international one in which 42 countries participated including ours (Canada). My curiosity peeked and allowed me to ask for more detail. It was evident my boss didn‘t recognize how big this project could be, but I instantly saw thru it loud and clear! I immediately offered to take this on as entire event organizer and leave it in my beyond capable hands. With a flabbergasted look on his face, he suddenly ‘dares’ me to take on the challenge to see what I could do. Rest assured his head is still spinning today 27 years later as to the tremendous outcome of that never to be forgotten event held in Toronto Canada. I smartly strategized it into 2 semi-finale events followed by the finale on August 4,1993. Each of the semi-finales, were held as a dinner and show, with 400 in attendance at each event. I started with eighty-nine contestants and by process of elimination, went down to 12 for the finale. There was an attendance of 700 who paid to attend the final show at one of North Toronto’s exclusive nightclubs while 400 more waited outside trying to pass security to get in! The events were each a tremendous success, the likes never been seen since in Toronto. Best news of all is that our Canadian representative flew to Italy for the show and landed as 3rd runner up! To date, that record has not occurred again since my production in 1993. Perhaps the greatest feeling was the immense sense of pride I felt not only within myself but the reaction from my father and my two sons. During my thank you speech, I asked my boys to stand while I publicly thanked them for their tremendous support and understanding. I often worked 14-16 hour days during the four months working on this project. This experience greatly increased my confidence and brought out in me a level of creativity I didn’t realize I had lurking deep within me! I’ve since been involved with other events but frankly left the industry as it often doesn’t pay and I’m too good to work pro-bono! Even worse are the dares I’ve taken on since this new me came out of hiding! In attending an outdoor summer concert, I found myself suddenly succumbing to my girlfriend daring me to run up on stage to join in the act, while the performer sang. The weather was hot, he was hot and I guess I was in between and it didn’t stop me from acting like a teenager despite being nearly 40 years old. Whatever possessed me, I found myself making my way up to the stage and once I got there, trembling like crazy. Only then did it dawn on me as to what the performer may have asked me to do. In obviously seeing the state I was in, he simply chose to sing a highly popular ballad to me and handed me a rose at the end. I believe I kept that dried up rose for a minimum of 10 years until settling in to a new place I had moved to. Years later while vacationing with friends in the Caymans, I accepted joining them on an excursion to see manta rays, little did I realize what this entailed. We boarded a small boat with approx 40 people on board while enjoying the less frightening rays of sunshine and views. A short time later I hear the engine turn off, a bunch of voices eminating from a distance and not from those on board and to make matters worse, we’re in the middle of an immense ocean, sea whatever! The tour guide on deck announces we’ve reached our destination. As I look to my friends for an explanation, I‘m told to look overboard, where I spot a large group of people in the water, not fully understanding what’s going on. It’s then explained by the tour guide that as we get off board we will swim a short distance and land on a large sandbank. The look of horror was written all over my face, let alone entire body! Was this a joke, I didn’t even swim? I was temporarily distracted by the voices of the people on the sandbank, speaking in Russian. Before I even had a chance to object, I found myself frantically wrapping my arms around the waist of my girlfriend‘s husband, who‘s greatest love next to his wife, is the ocean, as he swims me over to the sandbank. The moment I’m dropped unto the sandbank, my friends burst into laughter as though priding themselves in seeing me in major distress. From utter shock I still hadn’t realized what I was in for but it didn’t take long. Within minutes we’re surrounded by a few live, real manta rays, the likes I’ve never seen before! I’m then dared to touch or pet them and find myself taking lessons on how to do that so they don’t scared! So now the shoe is on the other foot and I had to be concerned about their fears! That reverse psychology worked for about one minute flat while I courageously raised my hand and lightly stroked one of the rays next to me. I lasted twenty seconds until I noticed it’s teeth and, as I’m about to collapse, I shrieked slightly in time for my friends hubby to grab me and swim me away back to the boat. Ultimately this for me was the craziest adventure let alone dare I had ever faced in my mediocre lifetime and I came out alive! It was only once we got back on board that my friends hubby showed the marks of my nails that dug into his skin. It was now my turn to laugh and laugh we did! They also commended me on my bravery in comparing me to the time a few years earlier that my friends daughter went ballistic on this same adventure. Apparently she climbed up on her stepdad’s shoulders and rose way above him given her 5’8” height! Turned our she was so petrified that her nails did far more damage than mine once she fell off and in desperation grabbed hard unto his waistline! It wasn‘t until I was told that that only about 100 people fit on the dune and with one wrong move anyone of us could easily have landed dropping down to the ocean floor. Until today I still have occasional nightmares of that happening! Odd that the breaking point for me has always been my fear of swimming and water. It’s one thing to walk along a boardwalk or sit on the dock at the cottage watching the tide roll in, but up close and personal is horrifying for me. When asked how I mustered the courage to stroke the ray, I simply answered I did it to save face from embarrassment as I watched everyone else doing it. This in itself was way out of the norm for me, as I’m considered by many to be a leader and in that instance was a follower. Setting all that aside fact is, I did it, wow how surreal! Each time I think of that experience, I smile with a huge grin! Once I accomplished this task, I moved unto Sea-doing in the great turquoise waters of other destinations. Of course the deal to meeting that dare was, I had to hang unto the back of my friends teddy bear-like hubby. I’ve since been searching for that teddy-bear like criteria in a possible mate, but that’s another story waiting to be told!