A few months after I started my bucket list, I decided that I couldn’t keep waiting around and postponing going after item number 1 on the list: Skydiving. I think that at the time, the reason why I kept postposing and backing away from going skydiving was because of what I though was a fear of heights.

I grew up near JFK in Queens, NY in a 6 floor apartment building, and my friends and I would often find ourselves at the roof looking at a the planes flying by and taking in the views. Almost every time we were on the roof, I would walk up to one of the edges and peek over to see the people on the streets right below us. I always felt a weird sensation in my stomach when I looked down and I could only peek over for a few seconds before that feeling in my stomach became too uncomfortable. Now that I look back, I feel like that was probably mild acrophobia or something similar.

Long story short, I made up my mind and decided that the fear was not going to stand in my way of that amazing experience. I made plans with a friend of mine to go skydiving at Long Island Skydiving Center. A day before we were schedule to go, my friend cancelled on me. I thought about it for a good minute and decided that I was not going to back away any more. I was going to go alone and face my fears by myself. To think day, I consider myself somewhat of a lone wolf, I enjoy when people are around but doing things alone has never been issue (Bars, Movies, Restaurants, Travel). I love to push myself and hold myself accountable when I commit to a goal.

Once I arrived at the skydiving center I was honestly pretty scared and didn’t really know what to expect. I went in and went through the process of signing all the paperwork and watching all the videos (Pretty intimidating stuff). Groups of two were allowed on the plane so I ended up getting on a plane alone with a tandem guide and the pilot. The flight up to 12,000 ft felt like for ever and as the minutes went by I could feel the adrenaline and fear start to kick in. The higher we went the less “real” it seamed. I guess my brain just couldn’t process the height and strangely enough the weird sensation in my stomach wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. Finally, the tandem guide hooked us up and led me to the door. He proceeded to count down from 5 and after I heard 1, I pushed myself forward and jumped out of the plane. The first 30 seconds I couldn’t stop screaming, the feeling was amazing and my adrenaline felt like it was up to 110%. Eventually the tandem guide deployed the parachute and we were swiftly gliding through the air. At that moment I felt so much relief, so much satisfaction, and I was so proud of myself for going through with it! The view was amazing! You can see a bit of the view and my face of pure adrenaline in the picture below. I definitely would like to go skydiving again sometime, preferably somewhere with a beautiful view. After the experience, I realized that my fear of heights was not as bad as I though it was. I think my love for adrenaline outworked my fear of heights in my brain throughout that experience if that makes any sense.

Skydiving: Complete! On to the next adventure!

1/29/2022