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).