At first I thought he was joking, but then he asked again on Friday if I was "still in" for skydiving on Saturday. I found out more of the details and decided that I would do it. After a very busy week at school I didn't put a lot of thought into it. I told Oscar sure and left it at that.
Saturday morning came and I was up early to meet up with the rest of our crew for skydiving. Out of the 15 people who said they were going, only 7 showed up the morning of the jump. We made it to the grass "airport" just outside of Houston and waited for our turn to be called.
(suited up and ready to go)
Our groups' number was called and about 15 minutes later I was walking to the airplane, having no idea what I was doing. A guy had helped me put my harness on in the main building, but I had yet to receive any instruction as to what was going to happen on the plane.
The plane pulled up to pick us up. A guy ran over and with a heavy British accent asked if I was Joe. He informed me that we would be jumping together and to stay by him. We got on the plane, he attached himself to me, and the plane took off.
The door on the plane was open during the entire takeoff and there were no seat belts. I held onto a piece of rope that was by my leg. The instructor next to me was eating a sandwich and offered my instructor, Sam, a cookie. When Sam was finished with his cookie, he asked me if I was ready. We had been ascending for about 10 minutes and were over 2 miles in the air.
I asked Sam if I was supposed to hold onto "these things," referring to the little straps by my shoulders. He replied with a laugh, "Oh now you ask, it's a little late to be asking questions." When he was finished laughing, Sam told me to lean my head back and to keep my feet back and together during free fall. He told me these tips as we walked to the open door. "Ready!" Sam yelled, but before I could respond we were already out of the plane's door.
Free fall was amazing. It wasn't as violent as I thought it would be. Actually, none of the skydive was violent. It was pretty peaceful, floating down to Earth in my parachute. There were many times that I couldn't believe what I was doing, and that my body seemed to be confused as to what I was doing as well, but I made it through.
(this is a picture of the group that went before us)
On the ride home we were joking with David that this was the best birthday party that we have been to. I was at Chucky Cheese for two hours on Thursday after school for a fundraiser and I would have to say that, although I had fun at Chucky Cheese and was happy with the number of my students that showed up, skydiving made for a better birthday party. It was also a great experience that helped to break up the monotony of the average week.
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