But they were really adamant. Back in College Park, my friends and I joke about FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out). I had a big FOMO about skydiving. I also didn't know what I was going to do with myself for several hours while my friends were parachuting down from the sky. So FOMO got the best of me and I reserved my skydiving spot before we left Rome.
I think my friends thought I was so against it because I was afraid. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't scared at all but that wasn't the reason I didn't want to do it. The guys you dive with are professionals, who do this over and over all day long. It was the price. I feel like someone should pay me $385 dollars to jump out of a plane over the Swiss Alps and not the other way around, but that wasn't the case. So, $385 dollars later I have an experience that I will never regret nor ever repeat.
The ride to the Scenic!Air airplane carrier was a pretty one. Once again FOMO got the best of me and I ordered the video of me skydiving like my friends. I am so glad I did this. I can't wait to get home and show my friends and family my jump, especially because skydiving is so out of character for me.
We all suited up, looking like astronauts or something out of Top Gun. Unfortunately there was quite a bit of a wait, which didn't help the jitters and increased anticipation. I finally went up in the third plane with Hayley, a friend who is studying in Florence, and a third girl. Hans, my diving partner asked me when I wanted to jump. I said not first and not last because I wouldn't get out of the plane. So I jumped second.
The free fall was the coldest, scariest, longest 45 seconds of my life. I think you are supposed to look up but I looked straight down, watching myself plummet through the clouds to the ground. I don't know if I could even speak or breath but "oh my God! oh my God! oh my God!" kept going through my head or coming out of my mouth. I held my arms out like Hans told me and when the camera was in my face, I gave the thumbs up. I'm still shocked I could manage that.
Forty-five seconds after the jump, or 10 minutes in my mind, Hans pulled the chute and we were floating just below the clouds. I was speechless, even breathless. Hans spun me in a circle but I quickly ended that, barely even able to handle being 13,000 feet about the ground. No tricks for me. The harness was incredibly uncomfortable so he loosened it as we hung out in the air.
I brought my camera on a string around my neck but didn't have a lot of faith in myself to use it out without it falling to the grou. But I did and captured the most breathtaking experience.
Soon enough we were fast approaching the ground and it was over. It was the scariest thing I have ever done but also the most exciting. My friends didn't think I was going to get out of the plane and that I would land in tears. Neither happened. I've been telling people that it felt like an out-of-body experience. Riding up in the plane, I wasn't nervous at all. I was all smiles. I thought I would have been petrified to do anything up in the air, let along take pictures, but I did. When I landed, I couldn't believe that I did it. I felt like someone else did and I was just there watching it all happen. If there is an experience to define "surreal", this was it.
As I relived the dive while I wrote this, I still can't believe I did it! It was an amazing experience that I am so glad I did.
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