I went sky diving, I went rocky mountain climbing, I even rode a few seconds on a bull, but his name wasn't fu Manchu...
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| A Whole New Perspective - Me and My Instructor Ravi |
Memorial day to me just seemed like the most appropriate day to go sky diving, something I'd had on my bucket list since I was in high school. I never doubted that I would sky dive someday and talked about it regularly even though I had been injured so badly in the Army that I was told I would likely never walk without assistance. As is usually the case with me, I thought "watch me". I was determined I wasn't just going to walk again, I was going to run...someway...somehow. I still had a brain tumor and was trying my best to recover from heart failure and a traumatic brain injury, but I decided that I could either die having lived or live while already dead. For me there wasn't even a question. I picked up my cane and hobbled out of the clinic in my Army uniform and tennis shoes determined to get better...somehow...someway. I didn't know right then, but it would take years, tears, and plenty of frustration for me to recover, but with my battle buddies loosing body parts in Iraq or coming back in a box, I was happy to be alive and have my limbs. My leg was partially paralyzed, the pain that radiated from my back was nothing shy of excruciating and my foot felt like it was sparking with electricity regularly, but I wasn't going to let the limbs I was blessed to still have sit idle. I figured if I was going to make a difference in this life, I couldn't give up no matter how much I wanted to curl up in a corner and call it a day. Besides, I still had several things on my list to do...like sky diving.
Now as an Army veteran, the day finally arrived...on Memorial Day I was going to jump out of a perfectly good airplane and fall to the ground...at least that's how my doctors described it. I think they were trying to talk me out of it in their own way. I was already intoxicated with the thought of seeing the world from a new perspective and feeling the rush of the wind in my face...leaving my troubles on the ground for a moment in time and free-falling 15,000 feet! Nope, there was no stopping me. I walked into the sky diving facility to let them know I was ready to go and saw people strapping their equipment on. My heart sped up...this is it...finally. I walked outside and watched them pile into a little plane and take off. It looked like they were going straight up...oh wow! I went back inside and waited for them to come back as I read the messages on the wall. It seemed everyone had something fun to say...my anticipation grew...if that was possible.
I sat on the couch in front of the TV that was playing instructions again on how to sky dive wondering when my turn would come. I heard my name. I looked at my husband, "Did you hear my name?" He shook his head. The TV was pretty loud, but there it was again...it was our turn!! After a little confusion I was introduced to the person I would tandem jump with through an interpreter. I spoke very little Russian and he spoke very little English so we were ironing out the signals for each stage of the jump through our interpreter. Wow...well, this was definitely going to add a little adventure to the this unique trip...lol! Before I knew it, we were suited up and partnered with our respective instructors walking to that little plane we had seen earlier. We piled in...I was the first in and then my husband, Erick. We were going to jump from a couple thousand more feet than everyone else. As they piled in, I was surprised by how many people could actually fit into this little plane...16, 17, 18...whew. Up we went nose tilted toward the high noon sun. My heart began to pound...what was I doing?. I looked out the window as the earth became smaller and smaller.
We leveled off and the door opened just inches from my foot which was extended out in front of me facing the back of the plane. The first set of divers slid out the door. They didn't have far to go since they were right up against the door on the way up. Then the next set...and the next...and the next...and the next...and the next until there was just Erick and I and our instructors. The camera got turned on about this time as I stared out the window wondering if I really should have done this after all...I mean that's long way down. The higher we climbed the tighter my grip got on the bar over my head. Erick's instructor asked me a question, which I answered very candidly about my true feelings at the moment in a southern accent at that.
Suddenly the door shut and the plane took a sharp turn upward as we climbed a couple more thousand feet. Erick did his best to comfort me as I was looking a little jittery.
My instructor pried my hand off of the bar over my head and stuck it in my lap. We couldn't communicate very well verbally so he made it clear through body language that in my lap was where I was to keep my hands by giving them a little extra shove. I complied...reluctantly. Whew...this was more scary than I had imagined. I probably shouldn't have read all those stories about people's parachute's malfunctioning.
We slid toward the door and my instructor leaned over to open the door. Talk about scary...I was strapped to the front of him which meant I was looking out at the ground not just hundreds of feet up, but thousands, the instant the door opened. Yikes! I put my head back against his shoulder and stared at the roof of the plane as our feet dangled over the side of the plane. After a few failed attempts of him trying to get me to look at the camera, he finally made the camera look at me and scooted on out. Suddenly it was fun, except that I couldn't breath! I was surprised by the force of air coming at me and my mouth was as dry as cotton, but the fear was gone. I figured whatever happened from here was going to happen no matter what so I was going to enjoy the moment! I was in awe.
Looking at the video later, I saw myself acting like a little kid and making these unusual expressions...for me anyway. You could tell that I was in child-like wonder of everything that was going on. While I just made a leap out of an airplane and landed safely (well...somewhat safely, as you can see at the end of the video) in the physical sense, the leap I've made inside by doing so is much bigger. I'm going to conquer, not just my fears and frustrations by pursuing my dreams even when they seem impossible or feel incredibly difficult to obtain, but I'm also going to make a difference in some way even if it's just by simply not giving up.
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| My Official Skydiving Certificate |
