Learning to Fly?

When once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward, for there you have been, and there you will always long to return.

- Leonardo Da Vinci

For most, skydiving is merely a box to check off on a list of things to do before they die. Its been six months since my first jump, and all I can think about is another one. Or two.. or three. Words fail miserably when attempting to describe the feeling you get plummeting towards the earth at 130 miles per hour. Its different than anything you've ever felt prior to, or will feel after. Call it adrenaline induced, religious, or downright euphoric - there's nothing like it.

It may not be the most lucrative profession in the world, and far from the safest (most skydive instructors don't have health insurance), but I'd have to imagine its one of the most rewarding. Your office is a hangar, your briefcase - a parachute. How phenomenal would that be? I mean, unless of course the highest you've ever climbed without soiling yourself is a playground slide, and the mere thought of airplanes reduces your knees to puddles of jello.

I don't plan on becoming a full-time skydive instructor anytime soon, if at all, but the certification alone is worth it. Once certified, one can jump for as little as twenty-five bucks whenever they choose, simply by hopping a ride at the local drop zone. That's less than a nightly trip to your local watering hole (unless its nickel beer at Confines, of course).

Shuffle. Skip. Repeat.

In 6 months – I’ve learned more than I’d learned in the previous twenty-two years. Lesson to be had? Life isn’t perfect, nor is it without its hardships. There will be ups and downs, progress and regressions, but through it all one must maintain an unwavering commitment to pushing on. Sometimes, the bad will seem to outweigh the good, but the urge to give in to pessimism and apathy must be avoided like the plague that it is. Good and bad are merely states of perspective, they aren’t absolute. Ultimately, you decide.

I’ve decided to take the days as they come. Today for today, tomorrow as tomorrow. Are they connected? Sure – but the latter should never influence the former.

I’ve come to realize that my life has been nothing short of amazing, and not in a glorification-of-the-past sort of way. I’ve been extremely fortunate in having the opportunity to experience multiple transitions and fresh starts – particularly since I decided to move to Florida. Despite bouts of uncertainty associated with being alone in a place far from home, it has been an invaluable experience. Everyone that I’ve met – since that fateful day that I walked into Joe’s Crab Shack a clean shaven, naïve to the world, eighteen year old – has left an unmistakable mark. Some, bigger than others. Some that will hopefully remain with me a lifetime.