Diving with Matt Johnson

When the interviewer for the NBC Today Show asked me, “So what made you help Matt? What made his e-mail different from all of the other e-mails you get asking for free stuff,” I really didn’t have a good answer then. But I have one now.

(Side note: I know it sounds impressive dropping names like the NBC Today Show. Who knows when they’ll put it on TV. But it sounds good!)

It’s all about having a dream.

We all need a dream, no matter who we are or what we do.

Everyone’s dream is different.

See it’s kind of like this. You and me, well, the chances are in our favor that we will have a 50th birthday some day. And the chances of us having a 60th birthday are pretty descent, too.

But for Matt, well, let’s be honest. People with Duchene’s Muscular Dystrophy rarely live past their early 30’s. And it’s kind of all down hill from here. How long will it be until his muscles won’t even move his fingers?

I don’t say these things so you feel sorry for him. Matt wouldn’t want that either (unless you had access to some pretty awesome dive equipment that you might want to give him! J )

But really, I tell you this for two reasons.

First, recognize that everyone needs a dream (you, too) and,

Second, if you can help someone with their dream, do it. And then that person will help with someone else, and that person will help with someone else, and so on. It’s a cycle. And that is really what it is all about.

A very wise man on a recent flight that I took told me that there are people in this world who see the glass as half full and there are people who see it as half empty. He exclaimed that he is the kind of guy who is just damn glad to have a glass. And that is exactly how I felt on Monday morning, November 13th.

I have known Matt for over two and a half years. I KNEW from day one that he would one day dive IF that is what he truly wanted to do.

Now, had I known really what it all took, I may not have been so sure. But that is what I believed then and therefore that is what I told him in hundreds of e-mails and dozens of calls. So it’s a good thing I didn’t know!

On that morning, I was just damn happy to be included. It was a beautiful day in Key Largo and this was the culmination of so much effort. We all had dinner together the night before and even did a little dancing – Matt included. I told Matt that that was all part of it. Hanging out with your friends is as much a part of diving as, well, diving.

As I got to the boat, I was informed that Matt was busy being interviewed and he’d get to the boat as soon as he could. He had already been hoisted aboard the evening before so we knew we could pull off getting Matt and his fancy wheelchair on board (lots of electronics). You have to disconnect him from the vent, carry him aboard, connect him to the vent, put his wheel chair on board, disconnect him again, and put him in the chair. Whew. I’m glad I was a spectator!

(Another side note: I told Matt a long time ago that I would be happy to come along but that I was not qualified to be much more than “eye candy.”)

So we wait and wait and Matt finally shows up, excited as hell. Today was the BIG DAY.

There were lots of us there so only a few could end up going on the boat as there really were three people with the NBC Today Show aboard. Luckily I was one of the chosen few! Actually, John Chatterton and I got to be the snorkeling dingy keepers. Both of us looked at each other after looking at the snorkel and said, “Hey, how do you use this thing?” Being the highly qualified divers that we are, we figured it out pretty quickly.

What is a dingy keeper, you ask? Well, Matt’s Dad sits in the dingy with the respirator. It has to be kept next to Matt at all times. You can’t put any tension on the hoses otherwise it could get dislodged from Matt. So we each had our end of the dingy.

Day one was tough. Matt was all excited. He couldn’t seem to relax. From my vantage point, I also think he was thinking he should be comfortable. But do you remember your first dive? It was everything but comfortable.

The trick is, how do you know when it is something that you can just “push through” by sticking it out versus being a life threatening thing?

To make a long story short (too late), Matt just wasn’t able to make it work on Monday. So seeing as how we had the boat booked for the following morning, we called it a day and went for a drink instead!

The following day went much smoother – I had suggested that Matt take off his attached latex hood (Dude, we’re diving in Florida!) so he did and he shaved his goatee which helped as well. John had to take off for some big important meeting in Chicago (something about making a movie), so Mike Lombardi filled in as co-dingy help.

They got Matt all suited up and in the water. After getting the BC and weights on him, it was time to take another shot at it. And what do you know – he made it! Lots of fins a flailin’ (Matt didn’t have quite enough weight on him so Drew and Frank had to push to keep him down). But they did it! And wow, you should have seen his eyes! They were huge!

As Captain Gary counted the minutes, I was so excited for Matt. He was doing it! Matt was diving! This first dive lasted for 15 minutes and he did a second (with a little more weight on him) for 10. It was awesome. Not just for Matt, but for his family, his friends, the supporters … everyone.

Remember Matt’s dream to go scuba diving? About two months ago someone asked me what is Matt going to do after he goes diving in Florida? What is his dream going to be then?

I told him that Matt was LIVING his dream. Look at all of the people he has met, all of the things he has done, all of the new places he has gone because of this dream.

A dream is not just a one time thing. A dream is the anticipation, the planning, the thing you think about as you fall asleep at night, your “happy place” that you go to when you are having your teeth cleaned. It’s not over. You just go to part deux.