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I Was Meant to Kite…

“Let the sea set you free… everything changes when your board hits the water.” – Julie Paquette

When I was first contracted to work in the Dominican Republic, I honestly thought I was being demoted. I had previously worked in countries overseas (India & Kenya) and felt disappointed that I was being assigned to work on a small island where people vacationed. Funny enough, this feeling completely flipped after just one day under the Caribbean sun – the universe had just presented me with the best gift I could have ever received. I had heard the expression: “Everything happens for a reason” – many times in my life before, however, I can full heatedly tell you, I never believed it until then. There was a reason bigger than myself for moving down south, I was meant to kite.

I remember when I first landed in the Dominican Republic, I walked off the plane and instantly smelled salt in the air, felt the touch of the sun on my skin and saw palm trees swaying in the wind – I was amazed! My boss was patiently waiting for me on the other side of customs, ready to pick me up in the organizational vehicle we later called: “Red Ruby”.

We drove for about 20 minutes to the town of Cabarete, where I spent the next hour sitting on a wall at Kite Beach, staring at the ocean, stunned at what I was seeing. Kites were in the air, people were flying, instructors were walking the beach with their harnesses on and their students closely by their sides. I sat there simply amazed, I had never seen anything like it!

I could not get enough of what I was seeing. I quickly noticed the female presence in the water was quite low, however, every time I saw a “badass kite chika” in the ocean, an overwhelming feeling would come over me. In that exact moment in time, my life changed. As I sat on the wall marveling at the kiters in the water, I made a promise to myself – that I, Julie Paquette; would one day be one of those “badass kite chika’s” in the water. That was a promise I made to myself in mid-2015 – by the end of 2015 I was learning to kite!

For the next few months, my days off were spent sitting on a wall overlooking the beach, and studying everything there was to know about kiting. I had a notebook along with, a pen in hand and wrote everything I was seeing around me down on paper. A few times, I even mustered up the courage to jump off the wall and run up to some female kiters – asking them questions about the sport and their experiences practicing it. I was kite hungry and was consuming anything I could get my hands on – I had a million and one questions and needed to know everything.

I knew I could not afford to take kite lessons and so, the promise I made myself soon dwindled and simply became a dream. Until I saw an advertisement online saying a kite school on the beach would be certifying I.K.O. instructors and therefore needed candidates who knew nothing about kiting, to be their students. I ran from my house to the road, took a public Guagua (taxi) and ended up at Kite Beach. I hand wrote a two-page letter, explaining 10 reasons why I was the perfect candidate for the role. The next few days I patiently waited for a response from the kite school, until I finally received an email confirming I had in fact been chosen to take the lessons!

I arrived my first day bright eyed and bushy tailed, ready to take on the world. I geared up and was so nervous for my lesson – I was the only female that had been selected for lessons. For the next three days, I was flung, pulled and splashed around the beach and water. I quickly realized how hard this sport actually was, and that I was far from being a natural. I continued with it, volunteering my time teaching English to the staff of another kite school in exchange for supervision hours. I was going to get this and I was determined…

After a lot of sporadic practice and stubbornness – I finally started getting the hang of the sport. Still, to this day I am far from being a professional however, I can kite on my own and I simply love it. Kiting quite literally saved my life – 2015 was one of the lowest years of my life and kiting gave me something to believe in. It allowed me to build myself up, be proud of what I was accomplishing and be a part of a wonderful community. My determination, work, and dedication to this sport was the key to advancing and getting better at it, unlike other things in my life that had failed, I was the only one who could change the circumstances of my progress. It was a way of taking back control of my very out of control life.

To this day, I am so grateful for the sport, the amazing people it has allowed me to meet and the determination it brought back into my life.

The lesson in this post is: Go out and try something that challenges you. Whether that be kiting or basket weaving- we must all try something that scares us. Remember, a year from now you will wish you had started today.