My Pole Journey: The Beginning

Hello there friends. I’m ready to share more with you. I promise that this post will be a bit more interesting than the previous one. I swear.

I work at the LightHouse for the Blind in San Francisco. In early 2018, we hired a Health and Wellness Coordinator. She is amazing and is charged with getting blind people in the Bay Area up and moving.

Sometime in mid-July, she approached me and said, “Hey, I met with a pole dance instructor. What do you think about getting a bunch of blind ladies up on a pole?” I said, “Let’s do it.”

Thursday, July 19, came and my colleague and I met with Amy Bond, owner and founder of San Francisco Pole and Dance. We chatted. We fell in love with the idea, and we had two guest spots in a pole foundation class the very next day.

It … was … amazing!

Here is a photo of my colleague, Amber, and me sporting 8 inch heels. My heels are purple and just gorgeous.

Here is another photo of Amber and me looking happy and smiling for the camera. We are standing in front of the SF Pole and Dance logo.

I cannot recall walking out of an exercise class feeling so strong, confident, empowered and beautiful. And of course, it was so much fun. I mean, I was a judo athlete. I’ve done numerous challenging yoga classes. I’ve danced. I’ve done goalball. But there is something uniquely empowering and awesome about pole that I can’t explain with words. You have just got to try it.

Major shout out to Allison Hudson. She was the instructor that day and was just perfect for two blind ladies in a class. She was great at verbally describing the spins and different moves around the pole. She walked around and helped everyone who needed adjusting. She was also cool with letting me feel what something was meant to look like. I learned lots of spins that day including a pole sit and the beginning of climbing a pole.

Needless to say, I was quite sore the next day. And the day after that, I went camping with my family and didn’t have a soft bed to rest my sore and weary muscles. Instead, I did one of the steepest hikes I have ever done.

Here is a picture of the family walking down the hill.

And here are two photos of the lake. Isn’t it gorgeous? I don’t know if the steepness of the hill was worth it, but maybe it was.

I did promise all of you that this post would be more interesting. And it was, I hope. I actually attended a pole class and I shared photos. But we are coming to the time that I should leave you and move on with my day.

Signing off for now,

Bay Area Blind Mom