VISIONRUNUSA Series (1): Change the world



I've always dreamt of doing something big and magnificent that would change the world like curing cancer, or ending world hunger.  As I grew up and did many things for a living, I realized that my occupations would all fall short of that huge dream.  I began my working career as an attorney, defending insurance companies when their corporate clients were sued for some accident that happened.  Most of the time, I was trying to mitigate the financial loss of an insurance company - I didn't see that as having a big impact on the world.  Next, I embarked on a corporate career with GE and a couple other companies.  I grew businesses, helped them become more profitable, and created jobs.  I found more meaning in leading organizations and developing people than I had in my legal career; however, it still fell short of the mark of the grandiose dream I had as a child to "CHANGE THE WORLD".

Then, my life seemed to "fall apart."  I found myself unemployed (or as I like to call it - involuntarily retired), and my deteriorating eyesight had finally caught up to me in a big way.  I had been legally blind in my left eye since the age of 14.  However, my degenerative eye condition had progressed and I was now legally blind in both eyes, and my field of vision had decreased from 180 degrees to 15 degrees.  I voluntarily stopped driving, and was a single Father of 3 children.  I think the combination of all of the above propelled me into a depression which landed me in my bed staring at the ceiling for a few weeks.  How could I change the world laying on my back, well little did I know that this would be part of a larger plan for my life and purpose.

I found my way out of that bed and depression by running, and running more, and running more.  My counselor told me it was meds, or I could run a lot.  I chose to run a lot.  It was only a couple months after this time when I felt a calling to run across America.  I didn't hear God's voice, and I didn't get a letter from the man upstairs; however, I did have an overwhelming sense of knowing that I was going to run across America.  It was not a feeling that I was "supposed to run across America", it was a feeling that "I was going to run across America."  The situation looked like this - I was unemployed, fighting depression, volunteering at a homeless shelter and all of the sudden from left field I was overcome with the feeling that Jason Romero is going to run across America.  I wanted to go out the door and start running at that moment - just like Forest Gump did.

After I realized what had happened, I got really scared.  I had never had a "calling" or feeling like what I had just experienced.  I knew it was real, because it's frankly not something I would dream up on my own, aspire to, or want to do, especially at that moment of my life.  All I knew was that this was something I was going to do, something I had to do, and I needed to start working towards it immediately.  That was the genesis of VISIONRUNUSA.  For the next 18 months, I would begin a journey of trying to figure out how I could run across America.

The run was going to be a statement for the blind and visually impaired that anything and everything is possible.  My blindness had gotten me to this point, and such a task needed to be a statement to myself and the world about limitless potential, despite a difficult adversity.  Maybe this could be my chance to somehow "affect the world" in some small way.

This blog series will be a multi-part, ongoing narrative addressing planning, training, finding financing, searching for sponsors, overcoming adversity, treating injuries, and sharing learnings from the run.

I hope this can help many, and that you will share this with your networks.

ONWARD!!!!

Jason Romero is a highly sought after inspirational speaker and the 1st and only blind person to run across America.  Jason is a member of the US Paralympic Team, holds 11 world records in ultra-running, a former attorney and business executive, and a single father of 3 children.  More information can be found on Jason at www.relentlessromero.com. 

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