Skydiving

My adventures alone started with this fun little number. I was sitting at work one Saturday morning stewing and fuming over Bryan's latest hijinks. I was so mad and depressed I was wishing I had something like a reset button. I couldn't imagine ever being able to feel better and be happy again. I wanted to just clear everything and start over. I was wishing that something would happen to me that would just scare me so bad all I could think after would be, "Well at least I'm alive and that's what matters." I was thinking a bad car accident or something along those lines. Then I thought, why wait around for something like that to happen, why not go out and make it happen for myself? The only thing I could think of to do that was go skydiving. Besides I figured when in my life will I ever be in a possition again where I have no obligations to anyone but myself in case I die and when will I ever be this indifferent and apathetic to the possibilty that I could die. I looked up skydiving places and picked out this one up in Ogden. It also helped that it had a Geocache out front that I could use for my 100th find. (Another thing I like doing that Bryan didn't). It was too late in the day to drive up and go and my sister was going to be in town the next weekend so I decided I'd go for my half birthday on November 17th. I don't know how I made it 2 weeks without telling anyone my plan but I did. I thought about it everyday. It really helped get my mind off things because I would get really nervous just thinking about it, but I knew I wasn't going to chicken out. Not a single person knew what I was going to do. I didn't go with anyone. I just drove up to Ogden that Saturday, paid my money, and jumped. I think I was trying to prove to myself that if I really wanted to do something, no matter how crazy it was, I could do it on my own. I didn't need another person to come with me.

The guy who I got to jump tandem with me was the owner of the place so I felt pretty safe...even though it looks to me like that parachute is coming off my right shoulder doesn't it? He was super nice too. He let me steer the parachute and everything. You can't even tell that someone is attached to you.

I look like I'm screaming in this shot but I never really screamed. I was yelling because it was so fun at first but you'd never believe how windy it is and your mouth is pretty much bone dry as soon as you open it. I was almost disappointed with how scary it wasn't. I wanted to be scared out of my mind, but I was really calm about it and wasn't nervous at all. It was just so much fun it made it not as scary as you expect it to be. (Although, one of my coworkers, Aaron, went about a month before I did and they had to cut away the parachute because it didn't open right and then pull the reserve. His experience sounded a little more scary than fun.)

The plane ride up was really cool. The free fall part was about a minute and you fall for about a mile. It was so loud you can't hear a thing. You don't feel like your falling at all, it's like you're flying. It was fantastic. Then they pull the parachute and I was glad I'd taken a Dramamine at the last minute because it made me SICK! It's super quiet and slow and peaceful. He wanted to show me how you can make the parachute twirl around and go in big loops and circles but I wanted to just go strait down which we did. As soon as we landed he sent someone to get me a gingerale.

In the end skydiving accomplished what I wanted it too. I really felt like after that I can do anything I want. It didn't hit me till later that day how crazy and exciting it was and how cool it was that I did it on my own. I called my brother for some help finding the geocache and told him I'd just jumped and he asked if I'd written some kind of note in case I'd died. It was fun to tell people when they asked what I'd done over the weekend. I think everyone should do it. It's not that expensive and it's so worth it. I think the scariest part is signing the waiver that says you realize you could die. They even make you write out in your own handwriting a sentence that says something like, "I know that what I'm about to do is dangerous and could result in my own death." We all die sometime though so what's the big deal? If anyone wants to go and doesn't want to go alone, I'll go again.