I
accomplished a childhood dream today. I flew.
Cassie,
Manny, Mel, Emily W., Morgan, Jenna, Ryan and I went skydiving this morning
with Skydive Cape Town. To accurately describe the experience, I’ll quote the
dude who sold us our “Skydive Cape Town!” t-shirts: “If you can find an
activity that tops skydiving, other than anything involving drugs or taking off
your clothes, let me know… because that would be a first.” And he was right.
It
was a trifecta of awesome-ness: good people, real fear and a perfect, cloudless
sky. We split up into groups of three, with Ryan and Mel going with other
groups of people since only three of us plus three divers could fit in the
planes. And really, calling those dingy things “planes” is generous. It may have been scarier flying in that
barely-bigger-than-a-model-airplane contraption than it was diving from 8,000
feet up.
Me,
Manuela and Cassie went up after Ryan and his group did. Here is the first
crucial part of the trifecta: good people. I love these two crazies. We have
conversations all the time about how we came on this trip expecting to make
friends, but not close ones. And now we’re rubbing up against each other’s
shoulders and purring, creating flattering nicknames (Casey, Cassandra,
Cassarella, Manny, Manuela, Veal, V’Lishia), going HAM dancing at clubs, being
strange human beings, confiding in each other and singing obnoxiously
loudly/terribly at all times during the day. And the best part is I don’t even
really recall how it happened. I don’t remember a time when I thought “Hey, I’m
going to go try to get close to Cassie/Manuela!” Nope, it just happened. And I
think that’s a testament to how real we are with each other. We didn’t have to
try to get along or fake our way into friendship. It was a genuine and spontaneous
thing.
Next
up is Real Fear. And let me tell you, once I got up in that dingy plane/thing,
it was REAL. I hadn’t let myself even think about it up until then and it was
all-encompassing to the point that I blacked out from the time I swung my legs
over the edge of the open doorway until five seconds before the parachute was
pulled. I was told I wouldn’t get that stomach-dropping-into-my-toes feeling
and that was correct because it was more like a
stomach-dropping-to-the-earth’s-core feeling. I felt so out of control and
free, which was awesome and awful at the same time, and I’m pretty sure I
screamed the entire time we were free-falling. My diver literally had to pull
my head to the side so that I would look at the camera instead of staring at the
ground and squealing like I had a popped lung.
The
final part of the Trifecta of Awesome-ness is the clear blue sky. The condition
of the sky sounds so trivial compared to the thought of jumping from 8,000 feet,
but this one simple factor can throw off the whole day if it isn’t accommodating.
The experience will not be as charged if it’s cloudy/rainy/cold/windy/not
sunny, and when we went up, the weather was warm, sunny and without a cloud in
sight. Looking out of the plane windows, we saw mountains, fields, the ocean
and little houses smooshed together along roadsides. It was beautiful and,
after a few days of cool weather and rain, almost cathartic.
The
Trifecta of Awesome-ness + Fulfilling Seemingly Impossible Childhood Dreams = A
good day
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