September 12th. 6 am – I wake up suddenly. I’m sweating. Not in a “there are too many covers” kind of way but a cold sweat. Like a “there’s fear living in my body” type of sweat. I think, “This is the day. This is actually happening.”
Flashback a few weeks…that’s when it all started. My husband and I were going whitewater rafting with a few friends. On the car ride there, our friend says that in honor of his 30th birthday, he’s going to go skydiving. I instantly say that I’ve always wanted to do that and that I’d definitely go. It’s not even like I paused. That was the immediate reaction. It was as though my brain didn’t even have time to interject. Maybe I just thought that it wasn’t something that was going to happen. Maybe it was because I already thought I was so extreme that skydiving was a natural next move. For the record, I’m not extreme. Not at all. I mean, the whitewater rafting that day consisted of us floating down the Potomac alongside people tubing down the river…with coolers floating next to them…and there I was with my paddle and helmet. Completely extreme.
Ok, so then a week or two pass by and we are at the beach with friends, when our same friend says, “I’m calling the skydiving place tomorrow. I’m going to book it.” Great. I can’t wait to jump out of a plane.
From that moment on, it was ritualistic review of the skydiving company’s website – What does it feel like to jump out of a plane? How far up to go?! What happens if you wet yourself? Wait a minute. What am I doing?? (They didn’t have an answer to that last question. They did, however, have an answer to “Can I bring my pet?” Why would you bring your pet? But then again, why would you jump out of a plane?)
So 6am the morning of, my body must have realized what was happening. I wonder if my brain was finally like, “Hey, body, you know you’re going to throw yourself out of plane today, right? Yeah, this was a choice. Free will. Idiot.”
My friends came by around 9 am and we were on our way. The weather was rainy and gross. “No way are they going to let us jump today, “I thought. I read the website 20 times, remember. We called the company when we were about 20 miles away and they said none of the morning groups had jumped but if wanted to come by anyway, we’d see if it would clear up. We figured we were 20 miles away so we might as well just go. We get to the site and there is a tiny pocket of sky visible. Hmmm, maybe this was divine intervention. Maybe God, was like, “I’d prefer you to live. I don’t have time to look after you today. I have more important things to tend to.” But for some reason, we proceeded to start ground training, just in case that the weather cleared up. The first step was to watch the “informational video” which was bizarre and what I’d expect of a cult video. It was an old guy with a long beard, wearing a suit and sitting behind a desk, welcoming us. Seriously? Step two was about 10 pages of us signing off next to all the people we weren’t allowed to sue should anything go wrong. How reassuring. I think we also had to write down our address about 15 times. I guess if something were to happen, they figured they go collect our stuff. It’s not like we had any permission to sue them at that point. So far, I thought, I hate this ground training. Ok, final step of ground training – prepare for the actual jump. That basically consisted of squatting and learning two positions – the safety position which was us clutching our backpack straps and the superman position where we extend our arms and bend at the elbows. Then we laid on the ground and pretended to be falling. Hmm, this is easy. Then, we waited. And waited. The names went up for the groups. About 4 hours later, our names were up! We were going to do this. I suited up (in my awesome purple and orange astronaut suit), put on my little leather shower cap and goggles and made my way to plane. You know what I was not expecting, taking off in the plane backwards. You basically board and straddle this bench with your back towards the cockpit and zoom…backwards. My instructor tells me that I seem really calm. Really? Maybe my body is shutting down and trying to repress this entire thing. But I just say, oh, yeah, I’m ready to jump. God, I’m so extreme. He says, “Great, we’ll be the second to jump”…wait, what?
So they open the door, the first group scoots off the bench and 3, 2, 1, jump. Oh my god, that was so quick but the next thing I know, we’re making our way to the door. The videographer/photog is hanging out of the plane documenting the entire thing. Yes, he was literally hanging out of the plane. The next minute or so went something like this:
Don’t look down, don’t look down.
Oh my god, we are looking down.
JUMP.
Aghhh, we are flipping. We didn’t practice for this. Close your eyes, close your eyes. Don’t watch this.
Wait, I just paid a lot for this experience. Open your eyes. Open your eyes!
Oh god, there’s too much oxygen. I’m going to throw up.
No, don’t throw up. Look at the camera. Look at the camera.
Smile. Smile.
Why is the videographer making that signal? Am I supposed to pull the chute? No, it’s too soon. No wait, is it time?
CHUTE PULL…BY THE INSTRUCTOR.
“I’m so sorry I forgot to pull the chute” – me to the instructor.
FLOATING.
“Welcome to my office” – the instructor to me.
FLY THROUGH A CLOUD.
FLOATING.
ANNDDDDDDDD…. LANDING.
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| seriously, that's me! |
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| i did this willingly. |
The entire fall lasted about 5 minutes, the first minute of which was perhaps the scariest thing I’ve ever done. But it was incredible and I’d do it again. Maybe.
