Adventures in Skydiving and Lesson Learned

One never knows, or truly understands how things like this come to be. It's a process. Short for some, long for others, and somewhere in between for the rest.

Some ten months ago a group of friends posted their incredible photos and videos of their skydiving adventure. When I saw them at a race a few days later, all I remember asking them was "why didn't you call me?"

Fast forward to July this year. I invited my dear friend Kellie to be part of my relay team at the Music City Triathlon. She had a "jump" scheduled for that day, so after some back and forth discussions, we figured out the timing for her to join me would not work. But, she invited me to go skydiving with her. "We could get Juliana to go with us," she said. As much as we tried to get our schedules to synch for that day, we couldn't. We tabled the idea for racing and jumping together for a future date.

Sometime in Mid September another friend, Lana, also posted some pictures and videos of her jump. She said she would jump again and would jump with us, so I knew at this point, that this, I must do.

Around the same time, in a conversation, after our Sunday 6 am run, my friend Max said that he would love to jump. I asked him to give me some dates. He did, we picked one and made reservations.

Unfortunately, we were not able to coordinate with Kellie and Lana. But Max and I were in. Now all I had to do was to get Juliana to join us. After a little no-pressure persuasion from dad, she agreed.

If any first-time jumper tells you they're not a little bit scared, or at least a little bit apprehensive or even somewhat nervous, they're not telling you the whole truth. I know I was. Not scared, but nervous. Nervous because of the unknown. Nerves are okay. Fear is not. I was not scared. I was excited and nervous, but not scared.

It took three tries for us to be able to do our jump. The weather got in the way the first two attempts. Clouds and rain all over the area. You don't want to jump if you can't see the ground. Because of these setbacks, Max could not jump with us the third time. So it was just Juli and I. Oh yeah, and her two friends. Bailey and Taylor. We had company.

We knew this whole experience would be epic and out of this world. Literally. We were asked to sign waiver after waiver telling us that in the not-as-unlikely-as-I-would-like chance we die, they aren't responsible.

We arrived early in the morning. We were to be the first group of the day. There were a total of six jumpers. We watched a video; couldn't tell you at this moment what it was all about but at the moment it all made perfect sense. I guess. Then someone proclaiming to be a teacher walked in and proceeded to give us instructions. Instructions amongst other on "what to do in the event 'this' went wrong or 'that' went wrong." Great! More reassurance that we were in good hands. Now, "which color do I need to pull if I have to pull the parachute open?"

Next step was getting suited up. Effortless. My tandem partner was all over this. I felt comfortable because he looked and sounded very professional and experienced. That is until he asked me to "check to make sure the hardness was on correctly." WHAT? How would I know that? Even if it wasn't, how would I know?

Then we boarded the unreasonably small plane. Small compared to any and all planes I have ever flown in before. There were two benches, one on each side. We would sit on these, facing the rear. I would sit in front of my teacher. Videographer in front facing me, recording my every move, or lack thereof. There were only two jump teams available that day so only two of us could go up at the same time. Juliana was on my left. And then there's the plane's door. It was a rolling door, made of some sort of plastic. You could see out this door.

Then the plane took off. Without consequence. That is if you consider the shaking and the baking on the way up "without consequence." I'm not afraid of planes. As a matter of fact, I love to fly. But hearing and feeling each and every one of the 5,438 rivets around me was a bit unnerving. But this subsided quickly. Then we continued to climb. We climbed to some 12,500 feet. That's over 2.3 miles up. That's a. long. way. up.

Then the door opened. The freaking airplane door opened. Have you ever been in an airplane 2.3 miles up in the air... with its door open? No? I hadn't either.

I would go first. Juli would follow. We waddled our way up and sat on the floor, at the door, with our feet hanging out. Did I mention 2.3 miles up in the air?

As instructed, my head was placed against my teacher; this so he could see where we were going. My hands were crossed against my chest and my feet were relaxed. And then we were falling. Free falling. 2.3 miles up in the air!

This was my favorite part of the jump. Maybe it had to do with the fact that in my mind I already knew how epic this would be. After we jumped, we tumbled a few seconds through the air, then we stabilized into the face-down position.

I did not know what to expect. This is not something you can imagine. You really have no idea. Will you feel like you'd lose your stomach? Will you feel like you're racing 125 mph towards the ground? You really do not. Even though you really are moving that fast, you do not feel it. Maybe it's because the ground is so far away and you can't compute speed. Or maybe it's because the wind resistance is pushing against you. You never feel like you're falling, you feel like you're floating. Floating with an incredible amount of wind at your face.

After a minute or so of this, he pulled the chord. There was a little tug. And then we were floating again. The big difference now is how quiet everything was, with the rush of the wind gone. It seemed like the most serene experience ever. We were now just gently floating toward the ground. Before I knew it, we landed. And I wish I hadn't.


So, what's the lesson learned here?

If you look deep into an experience like this, you could walk away with a lesson or two. If you look really deep, you could find numerous. But for me, one lesson stands head and shoulders above the rest:

"You can't touch the best moments in life"

My Incredible View

Yes. Hopefully, our lives have been filled with "moments", moments we will never forget, much less regret. Moments like our wedding day, the birth of our children. Moments like that fabulous sunrise or sunset. Or that hike in the mountains. We should aim to have "moments" not "possessions" or things define our happiness.

How many times can you say you have jumped out of an airplane? How many times can you say you have jumped out of an airplane with your daughter? This is one of my "moments"

Those that know me well are already asking "what's next?"

I've had a bucket list for many years.It has been written, not just wished or dreamed. It has been modified, added to several times. Many items have been deleted. Many items will take years to complete. Some items are crazier than others, but all of them are doable. It is truly a work in progress.

I share this list only with the wish to motivate each and everyone to continue your forward progress. Always keep going after what you want. Never let fear get in the way. Never let doubt control you.

To see what's on my Bucket List, follow this link.

So, as you can see, there's plenty of work to do ahead for me. This list will continue to be worked on, added to and modified.

What's on your bucket list?