Skydiving

In August, my good buddy Carly and I checked one item off our Bucket List. We went skydiving. Yes, we jumped out of a perfectly good airplane.

I was extremely nervous before we arrived at the location, but once I saw that it was a legitimate skydiving facility and we would be jumping tandem with professionals, the excitement set in.

My instructor has been a professional skydiver for more than ten years and makes between 10 and 12 jumps a day. He has a record of every jump he has ever made and I accompanied him on his 13, 420^th jump. Knowing this helped keep my nerves calm.

The training was very short. We watched a video about body position when exiting the plane, the freefall position and the landing position. We each had to practice these and then we were ready to jump.

The jump plane was cramped so I was definitely ready to get out of it. Once we reached 13,500 feet, it was time to jump. We scooted to the door, I crossed my arms over my chest, looked up, and away we went.

The feeling was more of a flying sensation rather than falling. It was truly amazing to see the earth while falling through the clouds.

During the freefall, which lasted about a minute, we exceeded 120 mph. Once the parachute was pulled, the canopy flight lasted about four minutes. Carly and I both had a nice soft landing on our feet in the landing zone.

Over Fall Break, a few weeks ago, Carly and I, along with 23 other friends made a trip with the intentions of going skydiving again. However, due to 100% cloud cover, we were unable to jump. The group traveling with me also planned to camp and cook out, but it was chilly and wet.

I had been working on details for the skydiving trip for several weeks prior to leaving. Out of all the plans I made, not one of them worked out.

An amazing friend of mine had to remind me (several times) to not stress and just enjoy the trip and I’m so glad he did! The trip gave me the opportunity to become acquainted with new friends and get to know old friends better.

A famous quote by Robert South says, “A true friend is a gift of God.”

Happy Trails and God Bless!

To contact Kristen with questions or comments, email her at kristen_odom@hotmail.com.