The Olympics just ended, and I could not help but wonder how someone could ever get their body to willingly fling themselves around on the balance beams and the high bars, but then again here I am about to tell you that I flung myself out of an airplane.
You read that right.
A lot of people asked me if I was nervous to skydive, but honestly I wasn't, people do it all the time, and I wasn't going alone. Learning about the risks, didn't even scare me. I was overpowered by excitement. Before it was our turn to dive, an 89 year old man with cancer jumped with his family and honestly if he could do it, I could.
Once up in the plane, we got strapped onto our tandem jumpers and scooted out of the plane. It was surreal watching a plane full of people slowly empty as they each dropped off. I was the last one off and I thought "well if everyone else is off, I better join them" I closed my eyes and we jumped. Cold air hit my face as we fell for 60 seconds from 13,000 feet. Once the parachute opened, I opened my eyes, popped my ears and enjoyed the ride. I literally felt like a bird, or a leaf, slowly floating back down to earth. It's not as noisy in the sky and it was really peaceful.
I was really really proud of myself that I did it, I jumped out of a plane at 13,000 feet above the ground. I even got to steer the parachute a little, everyone cheered when I landed and it felt so good to say I conquered skydiving.
We laughed at my video, and my cousins video. A lot of my other family members said they would want to do it next year. I can't blame them. I found out a few days later, that one of my old math teachers died, and that made me even more happier that I did something like this for some of my last days of being 21 years old. Because life is really short. Why not jump out of planes?
Also I did my dive at Skydive Twin Cities and it was amazing (so major shoutout to the staff & my tandem partner Kerry!) If you're ever in Minnesota/Wisconsin, definitely go visit them! It's also so much fun to watch other people dive as well!
