But not me!
Today, July 11th, I jumped out of a plane!!!
I cannot tell you how exhilarating it was but I'll try my best...
I'll try to paint a picture for you. Two and a half hours outside of Atlanta in Rockmart, GA, there is a place called Skydive the Farm. My dad and I signed up to go sky diving on Father's Day and yesterday my friend Brianna joined in just in time to celebrate her birthday (today) doing the most exciting thing on Earth! I have to admit, I am both afraid of heights and flying so... this was a bit of a stretch but something has happened to me in the past year where I am hardly scared of anything anymore. It's a great, new development.
So we walked in the office, watched a video about the process and started to get strapped in. When we were finding out who our partners were going to be, you can imagine my reaction when a shirtless man with nipple piercings and a stomach tattoo beckoned me over in an ever-so-sexual way and told me I would be with him... I always seem to have amazing luck like this...
At first I was a little disappointed I would be falling through the sky with a man who said "Oh, Baby!" when I bent over but, hey, all I could say was, "If I make it out of this alive, I don't care what you say to me!".
After a few photo ops, we all piled into a bus headed for the airport. The best way I can describe what it felt like admist all of those divers is to tell you to imagine the movie Twister. You know all of those storm chasers who have tons of one-liners and call tornados things like, "the finger of God?", and listen to rock music on their way to chase a storm? It felt just like that. Lots of load "WOOOOOOOO-ing", tattoos, and story telling. It was amazing.
When we got to the airport and I first saw our tiny little plane, I was relived because I thought to myself... "I think it might be safer to jump out of that thing anyways!" The plane went higher and higher until we were nearly 15,000 feet off of the ground. All the way, Gerald played tricks on me like telling me he got the wrong size harness for me or that if I freaked out he would "just lose it"-- I told him he was messing with the wrong chick and started to attempt to "harness my chi"... ya know, connect with my center and shit? Yeah... at least I tried!
So finally it was my turn... Gerald and I started to walk towards the open door stuck together like a three-legged race on steroids and the last thing he said to me was..."just remember: if you feel in a lump in your throat, that just means you are having a good time... and if you feel a lump on your back- that just means I'm having a good time"- GROSS!!!!!!!!!!!!! Hahaha! But I didn't care, I just saw miles and miles of green Earth below me and I was SO ready for the ride of a lifetime!
So Gerald said, "On three, tuck forward and we're going to do three flips out of the plane" and I said "OK!"... I mean, I'm already about to fall almost 15,000 feet... I'm not scared of doing a few flips! So we jumped! We were in a free fall for a complete minute and it felt amazing flying through the freezing air and controlling our movements just by moving our arms. When it came time to pull the parachute cord, he grabbed my arms and guided me to the rope controls for the parachute. We spun around side to side as we floated down and I was hysterically laughing the entire way (btw- hysterically laughing is my typical reaction to terror...).
When we landed, I couldn't believe it was over. This perverted man with embellished nipples was my hero and we just experienced the coolest thing on EARTH together... I will forever hold a little place in my heart for Gerald... even if he did take every opportunity to grope me while he was strapping me in...
But the best part about doing something like this is realizing at the end that, if you can handle something as terrifying as this, you can pretty much take on anything. Which is exactly what I'm looking to do: take on any and every opportunity to enhance my life whether it be conquering fears, taking on new challenges, or asking more of myself when it comes to my personal growth. I'm ready for it... bring it on, world!
