Skydiving is Incredible!

As promised, here are some pictures of me skydiving=) Ann, Greg, and I went on the jump to celebrate Ann’s 40 birthday. Ann is EXTREMELY afraid of heights and HATES flying so she decided it was time to push herself past those fears.

When she asked if I wanted to go, I said “sure”.  I didn’t really think about it.  In fact, I didn’t even consider that the people conducting the jump would charge for it=)  That just shows how much thought I put in before I said I’d go.

However, in the two weeks leading up to the jump the reality of the situation hit home.  I was about to jump out of an airplane!  People DIE doing this.  It wasn’t as though I hadn’t done things in the past that were ill advised and put my life in danger but this was different.  With this, I was going in knowing that it was dangerous.

The nerves stuck with me up until the day of the jump.  Who knows, maybe I resigned myself to whatever fate may lie for me after leaping from a plane but I was surprisingly calm.  There were a few remaining jitters but once we suited up, all of that was gone.  Nevermind the fact that I signed paperwork saying that what I was about to do could kill me, I was ready to jump!

I met the guy that I would be tandom with during the jump.  He explained what I needed to do, what to expect, and a lot of other things before we got to the plane.

We loaded onto the plane and Ann screamed.  The plane started to move and Ann screamed.  When we hit 11,000 feet and they opened the door, Ann screamed all the way out the door as they fell into the sky.

I was up next.  We got to the door and I looked down.  Fear hit me for a split second before we leaped out into nothingness.  We fell at 120 miles per hour but it really didn’t feel like falling.  It was more like floating with a lot of wind.  After freefalling for a while, my instructor pulled the chute and  we started to drift to the ground.  We did a few turns and circles.  ”This is what eagles feel like,” the instructor said.

He was right and I completely understand why people choose to jump out of “a perfectly good airplane”.  Skydiving was one of the greatest things I have ever done.  I seriously recommend it if you ever get a chance.  Besides, as they say at the school where I jumped, “There’s no such thing as a perfectly good airplane.”