Skydiving

It takes a certain something to make someone want to jump out of a plane 16,000 feet above the ground. Whatever that ‘something’ is, I had it one sunny summer day in August.

My brother and I drove to a small airport in Longmont, Colorado from Colorado Springs and my heart was thumping in my chest the whole way (an hour and a half). I tried to not think about what I was doing but my brother would blurt out every fifteen minutes “We’re going skydiving! That’s crazy!” We got to Mile-Hi Skydiving Center and began to fill out all the paper work. It’s quite bizarre reading the fine print signing your life away imagining what if… After we sat in the hanger watching videos of people skydiving for about forty minutes, which made me that much more nervous.

As a safety net for not backing out I managed to call four people the night before to tell them that I was going to skydive so that when I was having second thoughts, I would think about these people giving me s^&% for not following through with my plan.

Since it was my first time skydiving, I would do a tandem jump, which meant a certified trained professional was going to be strapped behind me. I met my instructor who gave me literally a minute brief of what was going to happen. We get to the door of the plane, we rock back and forth, we fall out, then I push my pelvis out and literally kick his butt with my feet, arms out, the whole time free falling. I must have looked horrified because he assured me, “We’ll go over this before we jump in the plane.”

My brother and I dressed in our suits and got on the back of a truck and headed out to the airfield. When we got there, I could see above me in the sky the outline of the parachutes of the group who went before us. The plane pulled up and my instructor grabbed my shoulder, leading me into the plane. It was all happening so fast. We got into the plane and strapped in. Our group consisted of three tandems (including my brother and I) and a couple of guys doing fun jumps by themselves. They were acting very calm and composed in the plane and I was doing my best to do the same. On the climb up my tandem instructor told me that the pilot had something to say to me so I hopped into the co pilot’s chair and then before I knew it I was actually helping fly the plane - seriously. I now realize now that the Mile Hi staff was trying their best to calm my nerves and this was just another tactic but it worked. They were all joking around with me and trying to make me laugh and it really helped. I then got strapped to my partner and the door opened.

It felt like a circus of some sort. All the experienced jumpers were at the front and they casually walked to the door and it was like a vacuum sucked them out. My brother, who was jumping after me, later told me that when my instructor told me to talk towards the door, my legs buckled and they looked like “noodles.” I looked down at the ground, which I could barely see. We rocked back and forth and then all I could see was the belly of the plane. I couldn’t scream because my mouth was just open in amazement. The minute and a half free fall was definitely exhilarating. The wind is just blowing around you and you’re falling 130 miles an hour. The shoot then opened and then we were gliding down. My instructor tapped me to look at the horizon at the Rocky Mountains glistening in the afternoon sun and everything just seemed so serene watching the world go by from above. When I got to the bottom, I was on such a high and jumping up and down shaking my head in amazement.

Since we risked our lives skydiving, my brother and I then celebrated life by going to the Left Hand Brewing Company located a couple miles down the road. The beer (try the sampler) is some of the best in the world and we sat at the bar smiling listening to bluegrass music. It was one of the best days of my life. I can’t wait to go again.