Starting This Month Like It's Over

To kick off this month I did something extremely crazy. For my Line Brother, Don's birthday, we went skydiving! We had been planning it for a long time, almost a year to be exact, but we finally just got the tickets instead of continuing to talk about it a few weeks before our jump. Sometimes planning can be a form of procrastination. Like Nike, we had to just do it.

Initially, we weren't actually trying to make the date on his birthday. We just knew we wanted to go skydiving. Luckily, it was a great birthday plan and a day well spent with one of my best friends. This is one of those examples where I threw away my entire schedule and just enjoyed the day with a loved one.

I hope to be able to share more moments like this one with more loved ones in my life.

Preparing to Skydive

First, I want to say that professional skydivers are not normal people. Everyone inside that Skydive Spaceland facility looked unique, had cool hairstyles, were really chill and just seemed like interesting people.

I'm not saying that if you aren't a professional skydiver then you aren't interesting. Everyone is awesome in their own way. However, these skydivers just seemed like they all had balls of steel (the women included). With that assumption in mind, my worries seemed to wither away, but not completely.

Prior to our scheduled jump day, I was impaled to do a little research. I had already signed all of the "if you die, you can't sue us" waivers, so I went to Google and asked a few paranoid questions. "How many people have died from skydiving?" It answered about 15 a year. Then I asked, "How many people skydive a year?" It answered about 3.9 million.

Phew. Okay, that's not too bad. I'm sorry to those 15 people and their families. I know they are missed deeply. I will pray for their healing followed by giving thanks to God for not making me the 16th. However, seeing that ratio did relieve my paranoia ever so slightly.

I also asked a few more detailed questions like, "How many miles is 14,000 feet?" and "How many miles away can the eye see?" I was concerned if I was going to be able to see the ground or not. All of those questions made my excitement for skydiving come and go.

The night before our jump date Don and I just hung out and barely even talked about what the next day had in store for us. In fact, I brought it up a few times just to see if he was feeling any of the same emotions that I was. Let me just say that he was not helping to relieve my stress. I suppose if you ever decide to go skydiving with someone, it's good for one of you to be completely chill about it (Don) and the other to be the exact opposite (Me).

The next day, we arrived to the skydiving location, signed in, and watched a terrifying, yet encouraging preparation video. Then we got assigned to our tandem jumpers and they strapped us into our harnesses and gave us a rather brief review of how to jump out of plane. I was trying my best to cover up the fact that I was about to shit myself.

After our instructors told us what to do before, during, and after the fall, we waited a little longer for the plane to pull up. At this point, my brain was finally onboard to this idea of jumping out of a plane.

The Jump

Before getting onto the plane I asked my instructor, Juancho, a few more questions. I wanted to remember all of the steps so I wouldn't get hurt or possibly killed. If you ever want to skydive please don't be afraid to ask as many questions as you need to. I had no shame at all.

When the plane arrived we all got in and I had to sit almost directly on Juancho's lap. The adrenaline within me didn't allow me to really react to the realization that I was sitting in this man's lap. In fact, it's like my instincts knew that Juancho would be the only person to save me if things went wrong. If I had to sit on his lap to ensure my safety then so be it 😂.

This wasn't my first time being on a plane, so the speeding up and taking off part didn't really phase me. However when we were about 4,000 feet in the air the other skydivers opened the side door. I had never been in a plane with a door open. Thankfully, I had some earplugs so it dampened the sound for me. And of course I was still asking questions the whole plane ride.

It seemed like forever before we finally reached 14,000 feet. That was our jump point. As soon as we got that high, people started jumping out of the plane. That was literally one of the most terrifying things I have ever seen. Don and his tandem jumper got closer and closer to the opened door and Juancho and I were right behind him. I watched Don go first and at that point I didn't know what else to think.

Juancho pushed me closer to the edge. I got a quick glimpse at what I was about to plummet into before Juancho told me to lift my head up. Then he counted down.

Ready.

Set.

Go.

We jumped.

Instantly, all of my worries and fears went away. I felt completely free. There were no butterflies in my stomach. Just me falling and shouting for joy. I let go of my handles and allowed my arms to flail in the wind. For an entire minute I was free falling and it was one of the most exciting experiences i have ever had in my life.

Juancho tapped my arm a few times to signify that it was time for me to pull the string and open the parachute. I was supposed to pull it at 6,000 feet, but I was so into the moment that I actually didn't pull it until about 4,000 feet. I was enjoying the moment a little too much.

Once the parachute was out, Juancho allowed me to grab the handles and began teaching me how to steer. It was a lot more difficult to handle than I initially thought, but it was pretty cool to be in control. I felt like I was actually flying.

I was too exhausted to steer all the way to the ground, so I asked Juancho to takeover for the landing part. The landing went smoothly for the most part, considering that I could barely keep my legs up. However, when I finally got on the ground it seemed like all of my adrenaline was slowly being replaced by fatigue.

Juancho asked me a few more questions for the video that he made of my skydiving experience and I could barely get any words out because I was breathing so heavily. Then I found Don and we walked inside to take off all of our skydiving gear.

Aftermath

As soon as I got inside, my body went into panic mode. I had to go to the restroom immediately. (Yes, I was not joking about feeling like I was about to shit myself.) I suppose my body was not used to moving at 120 mph and when I was finally back on solid ground, it seemed like my digestive system was trying to recover.

After that brief recovery I found Juancho and we discussed about a possible second jump and what I would need to do if I was interested. Then Don and I waited for our videos to be made. If you are wondering, the videos are not included in the price of the actual skydiving. You have to purchase that separately if you want this memory captured on camera (which I completely suggest you do).

Although the events leading up to the jumping were scary, the actual falling from the sky was my favorite part. I would argue that riding a rollercoaster is a bit scarier than skydiving. I actually feel more empowered to do more things that make me feel nervous. If I can jump out of a plane then I can definitely conquer anything else that frightens me.

If skydiving is something that you've always wanted to do, I suggest you go do it. You only live once and not everyday is promised. Go jump out of an airplane and prove to yourself that you can do anything you put your mind to

I definitely want to skydive again, but I need some time to work my way up to it. I can't wait to go, though. I wonder who I will go with next. If you are reading and don't have someone to go with, reach out to me! I will definitely be down to tag along.

As always, I hope you readers found joy in my blog post and you feel inspired to go conquer something that fears you.

Watch my edited version of the video of my first time skydiving below.

Jefferson K. Coe