‘Life is like skydiving’
Former NFL Safety Shamiel Gary speaks to Yocum, Retta Brown students about following their dreams
For Shamiel Gary, former safety with the Buffalo Bills, the goal to follow his dream of being an NFL player has been like skydiving.
Gary spoke to students at Retta Brown Elementary and Yocum Elementary on Monday. He also spent time with students during recess and greeting students at Retta Brown as they got off the bus.
The district spent $2,000 to bring Gary.
Gary started his day off at Retta Brown by greeting students as they got off the bus in the morning and spent time with them during breakfast. He then spent about 45 minutes speaking with the students about reaching for their dreams.
Gary told the students about the time he went skydiving. One day Gary had the dream of going skydiving. He said, sarcastically, that it made a lot of sense.
“The next day, I went to the place and I signed all the paperwork and I was about to watch this video about all the cool tricks you could do – the back flips and the spins,” Gary said. “Yeah, no. The video that I saw, it said ‘If your parachute doesn’t work, you will die.’ I’m like ‘what? That’s crazy.’ But I’m about to do it.”
He said that while he was walking to the plane, his heart was pounding and he started to find himself veering off to the right. Gary said his instructor took his arm to point out where the plane was. He tried to play it cool, saying that he didn’t realize where the plane was.
As they got in the plane and reached altitude, Gary said he got more nervous about the idea of following through on his dream. The door opened and the first person jumped out full of excitement. Gary said he wasn’t as excited. Then, it was his turn.
His instructor said they’d count to three and then jump. Instead, he pushed them out the door after counting to two. Gary said his eyes were closed as they left the plane.
“I just finally muster up enough courage to open up my eyes,” Gary said. “I open my eyes and I’m like ‘Oh my goodness. This is the most amazing thing in the world. Everything looks like ants. I’m like Superman.’ The parachute opens up and I’m like ‘Oh good, I didn’t die.’ We get to the ground and I’m so grateful that I actually went ahead and did it.”
Gary drew a parallel between going skydiving and trying to follow his dream.
“We all will have a skydiving-like dream, but you might start doubting yourself – your heart is pounding, ‘I can’t do it, I can’t do it’ – and you start to walk away,” he said. “But then you need a friend to come back and say ‘you can do it.’ Then you get in the air and you jump and you go ‘ahhhhhh!’ and then you’re like ‘This is the most amazing thing I could have ever done.’ You reach the ground you go, ‘I’m so grateful I did this.’ Dream big, live bigger.”
Gary then also talked to the students about the need for good friends, people who will help them stay on track, in their life.
During his time with the Miami Dolphins, he said, during one particular play he had his helmet clasped and ready to go. He was getting ready to sack one of the members of the other team when a teammate grabbed his helmet and everything went dark.
He said he was hunched over, saying that he couldn’t see. He said somebody called out that his neck was broken. He said one of his teammates came over and tapped his helmet and said ‘Your helmet is on backwards.’
“I took my helmet off and I put it back on the right way,” he said. “And now I can see. Because the thing is, guys, when you have wrong voices in your life, when you don’t believe in yourself, maybe you have bullying going on or home life issues. Sometimes your vision and your dreams can become dark because you don’t believe in yourself. And you need a friend to tap you on the helmet and go ‘Hey, your helmet’s on backwards, go this way.’ You need an instructor to grab you and go ‘Hey, the plane’s not that way, the plane’s this way.’”
Gary spent some time on the playground with students before heading over to Yocum to give those students the same speech before spending time with them during lunch and recess.
"His motivational speech far surpassed my expectations,” said Bethanie Hale, principal at Retta Brown. "He shared with students to ‘Dream Big. Live bigger.’ He was motivating, energetic, and inspirational. I am beyond grateful that we were able to provide this wonderful opportunity to our students. Mr. Gary has a heart for students and he doesn’t come to just share a speech with them. He comes to spend time and invest in the lives of each student he comes into contact with.”