Make life daring

Several weeks ago I had a very ‘Good Friday’ (the pun is that it was on Good Friday) and decided to go skydiving.  This decision was something I always wanted to do but never thought would actually happen, as I am not the fondest of heights.  However, with some coercion from one of my friends and a nice deal from Google offers, I decided to take the plunge and find a plane to jump out of.

First, they make you sign the most horrifying waiver I have ever seen in my life; pretty much giving away any right you have to sue after your impending death.  Then this ‘video’ they make you watch is pretty much the same thing as the waiver, saying all the horrible things that may happen but also telling you that when they fit you for your harness you may be touched inappropriately.  But don’t worry, it’s all protocol.   While this may be a deterrent to you [I totally froze while signing the waiver] I felt I didn’t drive 2 hours to Pennsylvania for nothing so I continued on.  You meet your instructor, who will be buckled to you for your first jump, and of course in true fashion, I get the kooky one.

They get you suited up in the harness and take you up in this little dinky aluminum plane.  I was the third person to jump which scared me because I knew if I saw anyone else, I would freeze and not want to go.  So up we go in the plane and look down at all the little people driving their little cars out of their little houses.  The farther up we go, naturally, the more nervous I get; we go up and up and the houses look smaller and smaller until all I can see are clouds.  It is there, at 17,000 feet, that they open the rickety door of the plane and proceed to jump out.  First off goes the videographer, then a woman, then her boyfriend, and then it is my turn.  As we slide down the bench and stand at the edge of the plane I start to have a change of heart…instead of getting ready to push off the plane and jump, I start pushing backwards and telling my instructor I no longer want to go.  My instructor, being the kind, understanding person he was, tells me it is ‘okay’ and then proceeds to jump out of the plane anyway, with me attached. 

Horrified, I closed my eyes for a brief second as we freefell for 60 seconds.  Knowing I spent good money and this is a once in a lifetime experience, I pried open my eyes and really experienced the fall.  That had to be the longest 60 seconds of my life.  We fell through clouds, which tasted like chemicals by the way, and fell for what seemed like forever, overlooking all of Pennsylvania in it’s glory.  Once the parachute was pulled, and I stopped freaking out from the shock of the jerk, we got to hover in the sky for about 7 minutes.  It was so quiet up there and everything looked so tiny and irrelevant, it really got you thinking how small the world really is, and how insignificant our daily routines really are.  From up in the air I could see the earth was really round (seriously), and it just made me think that this was probably one of the most life affirming things I have ever done, and it was certainly the biggest thing I have done in a long time.

It’s funny, jumping out of a plane at 17k feet can really get you thinking.  Instead of thinking about how scary what I was doing was or how horribly wrong this could go, I was thinking about how I need to take more risks in life.  Life should be truly lived.  We get so stuck in our daily routine; wake up, shower, get dressed, go to work, work, come home, go to sleep.  Every day, like clockwork, at least that is how my life is.  So to do something so out of the ordinary and so out of character was really, peaceful.  I was proud; I stepped deep out of my comfort zone and got to do something amazing [albeit simple] that I can tell my children and grandchildren, and anyone willing to listen, for years to come.  You do not need to shatter the world to have a great story, but you should try to have a great story at least once in a while.  And that is the reason I had a very good Friday.