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| 5 minutes of instruction to jump out of an airplane seems reasonable! |
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| Free falling. Best feeling in the world |
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| Beautiful view of Santa Barbara |
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| I'm still alive! |
The hardest part of this experience was calling to make the appointment. While the idea of jumping out of a plane was a thrilling one, and one that would no doubt garner a lot of attention and admiration once I posted the pics on facebook, committing to and executing on it was almost unthinkable. First there was the money- it's expensive to risk your life for a little adventure. Second, and more important, it's freaking crazy to risk your life for a little adventure. Isn't it? I told no one about this particular excursion. Experience has taught me that it's better to tell my mom about my crazy ideas after I've successfully accomplished them so she doesn't worry. And since I was surprising my boyfriend with this gift for his birthday, he didn't know about it either. So I was completely on my own to fret and worry for three weeks without anyone to whom I could vent my fears. The night before the jump I really began to panic. I thought about my son and how irresponsible I was being by risking not only my life, but his as well. What would happen to him should I die? Was I being a terrible mother? And what about my own mom? She would really be mad if I died. And who was I to risk my boyfriend's life? I could have potentially hurt a lot of people, and for what? A little admiration? I decided to proceed with the plan anyway. At any moment I could pull out, and I would only lose my deposit. Certainly that's better than my life.
When we arrived at the airfield, just outside of Santa Barbara, Eric was able to guess what we were doing, and to my delight was excited to do it. Admittedly he was scared, but excited as well. This gave me the confidence to proceed. And finally I wasn't alone. I could share my anxiety with another human being. After literally five minutes of instruction we were on our way to the plane. I figured I was strapped to a professional, what did I really need to know. The plane ride was the scariest part of the experience. I think my son has toy airplanes that are bigger than the tin can we went up in. If we were going to die that day, odds were that it would be because our Lilliputian airplane crashed. This made me more eager to jump out of it.
There were only a few other jumpers in our group, and I was proud to note that I was the only girl on that plane. Girl Power! Air is cold at 18,000 ft elevation which is the point we jumped from. Watching Eric jump first was frightening, more so than jumping myself. I didn't want anything to happen to him, and I certainly didn't want to watch anything happen to him. I jumped next, and was surprised at how peaceful the feeling was. I did not get that "stomach in my throat" feeling that I feel on roller coasters. Instead it was quiet and difficult to tell that I was falling at all. When the professional I was strapped to deployed our parachute, and all seemed well, I breathed for the first time in over a minute. The rest was a piece of cake. We landed safely, and took a short van ride back to where we started. The adrenaline stayed in my system for hours. I can't say that I'll jump out of a plane again, but I have some pretty great photos to post on facebook. And yes I feel cool saying I did it.
