Sky Diving: I Actually Did It!

        
          Sky diving was one of those things I always imagined happening way down the road......way, waaaayyy down the road. I would eventually do it of course, if for no other reason than to put my money where my mouth was after years of declaring that I had no fear of heights.
          Unexpectedly, my aunt got wind of my desire to jump out of a plane...and the rest was history. She not only encouraged me to do it, but also decided to come along for the adventure.
          So, on October 12 my aunt, my sister Caleigh, Ashley, and I all made the journey to the Triangle Sky Diving Center in Louisburg, NC. It was a beautiful day (which completely ruled out the possibility of delay due to weather). Upon arrival, we were directed to a side room by a nice woman who explained the legal procedure.
          We basically signed our lives away.
          The wait was somewhat long since we had gotten there early. We were allowed to go into the adjacent hanger in the meantime. Amazingly, I felt very relaxed about the whole thing; this was even in spite of the fact that one of the people who went before us broke his ankle (you are supposed to lift your legs when landing so that the instructor's feet hit first...that guy didn't).
          Our group was made up of all girls (excluding my uncle who was patiently waiting for us), so we chit-chatted and took pictures in some glittery fairy wings that Ashley had brought.

Wishful thinking :)

We even joked about jumping out of a plane and, in a few seconds, getting to see Jesus in heaven. Ashley said that she would love to get something broken because it would become a great story:
         "How'd you break your leg?"
         "Oh, this? It happened while I was sky diving last week."         
       

         My mother was unappreciative of those comments.
         After the wait, the instructors who we would be jumping with came in to suit us up. They gave us a 5 minute lecture that went so fast I barely heard what was said. I was thankful that everyone repeated the instructions multiple times on the ground and in the air so that when it came time to dive it was basically ingrained into my memory. All the gear was double and triple checked (which was reassuring) and then we were off!

Caleigh getting double checked

          The seats of the plane were parallel to the windows, so we had to straddle them. I was in the back near the cockpit (the hatch was at the tail-end of the plane). My aunt was up front with her instructors, Ashley was second, and Caleigh was seated across from me. Both my aunt and Ashley decided to get their dive filmed, so they both had professional photographers with them.
          As we took off, I had the epiphany that I was more relaxed at the thought of jumping out of an airplane at 13,500 feet than I was before performing a recital or giving a speech. For some strange reason, that thought encouraged me.
          We were not in the plane long, but I enjoyed the ride anyway. At a certain point, we were so high that it stopped registering that I was looking at the ground from over 2 miles away. It seemed like I could simply step out and touch the earth in a few feet. 
          After the plane leveled out, the man closest to the door lifted the hatch and was gone before I could blink. Wind was rushing into the cabin and the temperature dropped. My aunt and her team were out in a few seconds. The instructor that was strapped to my back was speaking into my ear reminding me to breath. A few more seconds and Ashley was out and dropping fast.
          My turn. I don't think I could have backed out even if I had wanted to at that point. We shuffled to the opening and I went down my left knee. The instructor scooted us to the very edge.
          He was yelling into my ear again: "Ready!" We rocked forward and back. "Set!" We rocked again. "Arch!" 
          Wind. Lots and lots of wind. The adrenaline was pumping, my hands were freezing, my goggles felt loose...and it felt like I was being held up by a gigantic fan. There was absolutely no sensation of falling. None. Not even a stomach-in-your-throat feeling.
          60 seconds later, the instructor tapped me on the shoulder to let me know that he was about to deploy the parachute. There was a jerk and suddenly we were floating.
          The clear October sky was a stunning backdrop to the brownish earth. My instructor told me I could remove my goggles so I got take in the view uninhibited. I was smitten.
          The instructor guided the chute down, taking us in several 360's in the process (he asked if I suffered from motion sickness first; I said "No").

          As we approached, he told me to lift my legs for 8 seconds as we landed. I managed for 2 seconds before realizing that I wouldn't be able to hold them up for that long. So I dropped them for 2 seconds (with my instructor screaming in my ear), and then finally lifted them again until we glided safely to the earth. 

Walking back to the hanger after a safe landing

          Everyone who had jumped landed safe, unharmed, and completely exhilarated! We all wanted to immediately go again!
          If there was one thing I could tell people about sky diving, it would be that the preliminary trepidation is worse than the action itself...but at the same time, the experience would not have been as exciting without the pre-dive nerves to get the adrenaline pumping. A strange paradox to say the least, but it was worth experiencing none the less.
          All in all, sky diving was by far one of the coolest things I have ever done. Even though I am happy to have it checked off my Knot List, I'm already trying to figure out when I can go again :)
         

The England Journal-Day 1

          I am right now sitting on the family room couch in my pajamas (which I haven't taken off all day), snuggled in a blanket with the cat sleeping peacefully next to me. Today was the official start of spring break, hence why I have indulged in the pajamas all day. As you can guess, since I have managed to have an entire day to my self doing all the odd jobs on my "I'll do it over spring break list," it finally hit me that posting about England would probably be a good thing to do while I have the time and was feeling motivated.
           To be honest, I am kind-of glad that I have waited this long to share about one of the major check marks on my Knot List. I have had 3 months to process everything that has happened and the bad things don't seem as bad while the good things have taken on a dream-like quality. I will be sharing from the journal that I kept while I was on the trip (a gift from wonderful Nicole) and I will also be sharing some memories that I didn't put in journal (mostly because of laziness, not because the memories were not meaningful).

My England journal and other things in my very crowded lap on the plane

Journal Entry 1
December 13, 2011- 6:08 pm

          We are almost on our way! I am sitting next to Pearl right now in seat 24A, a window seat :) There is no one sitting in front of us so we opened the two windows closest to our seats. It's dark outside so all I can see are the airport lights with the airplanes shrouded in hazy shadows. 
          Dr. M and Nicole are sitting in the seats next ours with the isle in between. I can hear children talking to one another behind me about how this is their first flight and how excited they are :)
          Me, Pearl, and Nicole arrived at the airport at around 3:40 this afternoon. My Mom and Dad dropped us off  using Nicole's car, which is going to be parked at our house while we are in England. 
          The flight attendant over the PA  said that the type of plane we are on is an Airbus 3300 (or something like that). The engines are starting to hum louder and I can feel the floor vibrating slightly! I can't believe we are actually doing this! It is 6:21 right now so we will be taking off any minute. 
          We're moving.... :)

          Since this was only my second time out of the country, going through check-in required a lot of explanation from the people at the desk (who knew just swiping your passport could be so complicated). But I managed to get my bag checked without too much trauma involved. Security took a lot shorter than I thought it would (about 20 min when I was expecting an hour) and I had to get scanned by one of those new techy security devices. All in all, everything went very smoothly.
          We met Dr. M at the gate and it was wonderful to see her. It had been quite a while since all four of us had been together. She had been waiting there for  several hours because she had a friend drop her off early. She was still her gentle, soft spoken self in spite of having to wait for so long. Dr. M is the type of person who finds the positive and  makes friends no matter where she is (as you will see in future entries :)
          Nicole and I wanted to buy something to eat before we got on the plane, so we rushed around looking for food and still managed to get back before our plane started boarding. I wasn't sure at first if security would allow me to take a salad on the plane (though I don't know what could be dangerous about lettuce and tomatoes), so I asked a couple of guards at the gate if bringing food on the plane was permitted. One guard answered me with a straight face, "Only if you share." I laughed and held up my southwest salad to him. He let it pass :)
          Our gate was close to a German airline and I had fun listening to a lot of tall, blonde people speaking German. They all looked so sophisticated. Dr. M got into a conversation with a British woman about the Nazis bombing churches during WWII (I seriously did not make the connection between the German airline and Dr. M's historical conversation until now! I doubt she realized it either :)
          We were some of the last to board and I wouldn't have minded except that my bags were heavy. We got to our seats with relative ease (about as much as ease as you can get on a plane). I quickly ate my salad before the flight attendants could say anything about it and settled in for what I thought was a long flight to London Gatwick Airport.