I have been deathly afraid of the idea of skydiving for, well, forever. I would always try to rouse up a few friends to go with me, we'd talk about it and it would always slip through the cracks. Subconsciously avoiding it? Maybe. But it came to a point where I had to do it.
I finally got my friend David to commit to going with me before I left to move back to Virginia. I found a place in Jacksonville, FL that proudly stated that they led the highest jump in North America. Great.
So the day came where we were actually going to do this. We headed up for our appointment at 1PM and got there a few minutes late at 1:05PM. The guy came running out to our car telling us that we had to go now otherwise we would have to cancel due to a storm that was coming our way. Wait, what? Was he serious?
He rushed us inside and told us not to read anything and just sign. We skimmed over the forms, signed our lives away (literally) and they started strapping us into our gear.
Now I know that it sounds horrible that I barely read the forms, was getting into gear I knew nothing about and was about to board a plane and jump out of it with a guy I may have said 3 words to, but in the circumstance it was probably the best way it could've happened for me. I had no time to think about it and no time to back out. I did tell David that if I died to let them know I signed under duress :).
We walked out and saw probably one of the smallest, sketchiest planes I had ever seen and they hurried us along. We got in, the plane had no side and was completely open. We took off and I started to panic.
It took about 30 minutes to get up to our height, about 17,000 feet. Every time I thought we were about to jump, they told me we still had to go higher. The pilot then quickly turned around, told us it was time to jump and the guy started scooting me towards the edge. Hold on, I wasn't ready!
Too bad. All of a sudden my legs were hanging off the side of a plane, 17,000 feet off the ground and I was about to jump. And that was it.
Before I knew it, I was free falling through the sky and I cannot even begin to describe the feeling. At first I had to get my bearings and was desperate to as I did not want to miss a second of this feeling.
My heart felt like it was about to explode, my body felt completely helpless and my face hurt from smiling so big. An involuntary scream came out of my the moment I left the plane and continued for the majority of the time I was free falling.
He pulled the shoot and we started to glide. It was absolutely peaceful. I regained normalcy in my breathing, looked around as I could see all of Jacksonville, or at least it felt like it, and I had the most overwhelming feeling of happiness.
(Sorry for the boob shot. The harness pull up in a way I was not expecting :))
I was lucky to have a smooth landing where I was actually able to stand up right on the ground. My first thought when I got back down was I wanted to go again. Right then and there. I met David and he was just as ecstatic and I was.
The adrenaline was incredible and I cannot remember another time in my life where I felt so alive.
This was absolutely exhilarating and I would do it again in a heartbeat. Anyone want to go skydiving? I'm your girl!
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