Free as a Bird

A few days before leaving for Italy I nervously told my worry prone mother what I was planning on doing my last weekend here in Europe.

"Mom, I think I'm going to go skydiving in Interlaken, Switz..."

"HELL NO!" she screamed, not even allowing me enough time to finish my now crushed dream.

As I turned and sulked away like a sad puppy I remembered that my mom was a softy when it came to me and when the time came I knew she wouldn't want me to miss out on such an amazing opportunity.

Fast forward to weeks later, this past Saturday morning, and there I was, in head to toe orange space cadet gear facing the helicopter I was soon to succumb to. As a foreign feeling of fear, anxiousness and excitement seeped through my veins my skydive instructor, Tony, (who I was to jump tandem with) beckoned me over to the helicopter door. Casually, as if skydiving was as easy as baking a pie, he hopped right on in and slapped his hand on his lap for me to sit as if I were a wide-eyed child hopping on Santa's lap. As the small helicopters propellers started to turn, so did my heart. It wasn't pumping, it wasn't beating, but it was dealing with my uncontrolled feeling of fear and thoughts of "am I really about to JUMP out of a helicopter at 15,000ft?!" and "ooooooh nooooo, I should have listened to my mom's incessant 'hell no's!'" repeating in my boggled mind.

As my heart continued to react to my ping pong thoughts my head was suddenly pushed against the chopper window, my nose like a squished bug. Tony had decided to look down below and since I was now tightly strapped on top of him did whatever he did whether I wanted to or not. I for once got a glimpse of what it felt like to be a siamese twin, yikes. As my now pig looking nose remained against the glass I decided I should probably take a cue from Tony and look down. At 15,000 ft above ground, Switzerland looks like a far away dream world. The two lakes on either side of Interlaken beamed an electric blue as the vast green grass surrounding them seemed to simply frost over the land. The endless Swiss Alps were mere grass sprinkled and snow capped Hershey Kisses's compared to my height. The small villages along the valleys looked like Monopoly pieces that I could simply reach down and pick up. I finally knew what one meant by "a breathtaking view".

Suddenly, my nose snapped back like a rubber band as Tony pushed my well "our" body back and casually slid the chopper door open. Before I knew it my feet were dangling off the edge, one amongst the cotton ball clouds.

"Are you ready?" Tony screamed amongst the blazing propellers. I felt as if I were in Apocalypse Now preparing to decend into battle.

Before I could even respond my body was arched against Tony's as we full forced free fell into the abyss below. The adrenaline rush soaked through my body as my cheeks flapped back like a happy dog hanging out a car window. My mouth hung wide open as I screamed bloody murder but the deafning sound of the vortex of wind encapsulating my body deafened any sound. As a new feeling of excitement continued to flow all around me a sudden jerk pulled me up like a puppet and my heart skipped a million beats, the parachute had opened. A cheshire car grin exploded on my face as I realized what I had just done, survived and was still doing. Once I landed I found that same grin still glued to my face as I screamed "I want to do this again!" I'm sure that's just what my mom would love to hear...