Before I came to Australia, I swore to myself that I would experience this country every way possible. If I am given the opportunity to undergo something I never have before, I will seize it. ‘Carpe diem’ all day, everyday.
I seriously committed to that promise when my mouth turned into a gushing faucet of screams, and my limbs softened into flapping, wet spaghetti noodles.
Yup, I went skydiving.
It’s difficult to explain the sensation of willingly jumping out of a plane at 14,000 ft, but others have described it as “better than drugs and sex, feeling like you are truly flying,” or simply, “just incredible.”
In the days leading up to the dive, I convinced myself the chute would not deploy, and I would nosedive to my demise. The chances of that actually happening are highly unlikely, but hearing phrases such as “120-130 MPH,” and “terminal velocity” were not reassuring.
But as I soared over the water of Mission Beach, I simultaneously felt mortally fragile yet totally invincible.
I realized after I landed that the combination of those two sensations is pure freedom.
When a parachutist is free-falling for the quickest and longest minute of their life, they just let go. They let go mentally, emotionally, and physically. In my case, I let go a stream of profanity and shrieks of absolute fear and happiness.
I can say I experienced almost every emotion possible—terror, nausea, disbelief, glee, regret, just to name a few. I can also say that skydiving has to be the best high in the world- literally and figuratively.
There is no way I will ever forget the blurred phenomenon of floating during free-fall, the overwhelming sense of relief when the parachute deployed, and the intoxicating marvel for the aerial scene of the Pacific Ocean. That view will be engrained in my memory forever- seeing the ocean wrap around the horizon following the curve of earth, the early morning sun casting shadows of clouds on the turquoise waves…
Basically, I recommend skydiving. Get passed the fear, and as my big brother advised before I made my leap of faith, “Enjoy it, it goes by quick.”