I don’t have a bucket list, but if I did, I would be able to cross off “Go skydiving” from it. I went for the first time this past Friday and it was INCREDIBLE! One of my work friends, Kristin, was brave enough to join me. The scariest parts of the entire experience were all in the beginning: 1) sitting inches away from the airplane’s open door as we flew up into the sky and 2) having to stand on the 4 inch ledge of the door of the plane right before we jumped.

The actual jump itself was amazing! We jumped from an altitude of 9000 feet and got to free fall for around 35 seconds. That sounds like such a short time, only half of a minute, but sit with a stopwatch for that amount of time, imagining yourself falling through the sky at a speed of 120 mph, and you’ll see it was perfect. My tandem jumper/instructor, Paul, deployed the parachute and then the remainder of the dive was spent drifting gently back down to Earth. To align us with the landing area, Paul (I was attached to him via a tight-fitting harness and a series of intensely strong carabiners and buckles) had to swoop and swerve left and right in the sky. That was not fun. I felt like I was going to be sick. Around 2-3 minutes later, we landed on our feet and that was that.

That’s been the most courageous, adventurous, and maybe craziest thing I have ever done and will ever do. Well, besides raising a family, of course! That definitely requires courage, adventure, and a little bit of craziness!

Me and Kristin

Such an amazing feeling!

Free falling!

Here we are, drifting back down.