Thrill of a Lifetime
Being absolutely terrified of heights, I have never in my life considered skydiving…before Australia. My first few months here I had met so many people that had either done it, or said they were going to do it. My thoughts were always, “You’re absolutely insane.” What could possibly make somebody want to jump out of a plane, 14,000+ feet in the air without the certainty that they would survive? Sure, the chances of anything bad happening are pretty slim with all the precautions that are taken, especially in Australia, but I never saw why it was such a necessity in everybody’s travel plans up the East Coast.
Slowly my mind starting changing from an absolute no, to maybe I will do it if somebody forces me to. As I gained more friends on social media sites and saw them traveling up the coast while I was living in Sydney for 6 months, the most popular and most epic adventures any of them could ever post would be their skydiving videos. It got to the point where I had seen over 20 different skydiving videos, and I would still be shaking with nerves and excitement as they jumped out of the plane and screamed their lungs out the entire way down. But fear was never on any of their faces — just pure excitement…and at the end of every jump when landing, they would always yell that they HAVE to do it again one day.
Finally, the first friend I made in Australia and the one absolute dearest to me had me convinced. I would do it only if I could do it with her. Her certainty about doing it probably gave me the confidence I needed. I also knew that if I didn’t end up doing it, I would regret it later in life. This is one of those insane things you do for the crazy adrenaline rush that you will remember for the rest of your life. And there’s nothing better than being able to say, “Yeah, I’ve been skydiving before, was so cool…wasn’t even scared…” with a smug look on your face, almost daring others to do that legendary thing you had already done before them. When the time came to actually book skydiving, I booked it the night before at 6:30PM right before the tour shop closed at 7PM, to be picked up at 5AM the next day. This left me with absolutely no time to change my mind. A glass of red wine or three later, I no longer had butterflies in my stomach and was fast asleep.
Waking up the next morning, I didn’t allow myself to be scared. Instead, I went into it thinking, “This is booked. There’s no turning back. I’m going to do it so I might as well just get myself excited for it. Turn all the fear into excitement about this wild thing I’m finally going to do and be able to share with others.” Somehow this mantra worked. The entire bus ride to the field I felt nothing but excitement. Getting into my skydiving outfit, getting my buckles on, walking into the plane, sitting in front of my professional skydiver as we secured ourselves together for the jump…pure excitement.
As our plane climbed into the sky, looking out the window over Byron Bay I could see the entire bay and dolphins swimming around. Our plane circled further and further up into the sky until the door opened and we all began to jump out. I tilted my head back and made my body into a banana shape as we had been instructed, and out the plane we went. My stomach didn’t feel funny as I thought it would have, with us dropping tens of meters every second. I somehow remembered what everybody told me about keeping my eyes open and taking in all my surroundings because the jump is a literal 5 minute thing. I looked at all the clouds flying by, felt the moist wick of them as we passed through. When all the clouds passed I looked around at everything below me — the bay of Byron, the lighthouse at the far south end, the long golden beach, and the sun in the distance having fully risen. I didn’t feel unsafe for a second, and when the parachute was opened, the professional behind me allowed me to guide us around in circles. Having been the absolute most insane, exciting, thrilling, and adventurous thing I have ever done in my life, the first thing out of my mouth when we landed was…you guessed it…, “I HAVE to do that again!!!” There is nothing in this world more thrilling, and I will recommend it to every person I meet.
