Calaigh and Sterling: sKyDiViNg.fReE-fALLinG. (:

so.

what did my spring break consist of??

moab. beautiful moab of course.

the last day of the trip, sterling surprised me with the (horrifying) news. We were scheduled to jump out of a plane. just 3 hours later. . No backing out. hmmm. It was on my bucket list... but i never thought I'd ever do it, because? I would never ever never never never ever ever willingly drive myself somewhere to say... oh hey, can i sign my life away on a billion forms promising not to sue... if you guys would PLEASSSSSSSSE take me 10 thousand feet up in the air and let me jump out. please please please???

well... it was quite the rush. and i'm happy we did it. But needless to say, I was freaking out.

I was proud of myself for having a smile on my face in all the "before" pictures... actually... if you hadn't guessed... they were pretty forced smiles. lol. I was so stinkin scared out of my mind, that it was seriously having a physical toll on my body. I was so grumpy and not talking to anyone! I was just sitting there in my jumpsuit forever while we were waiting for the OK from the pilot for the winds to die down (not calming my nerves that we got the OK, along with a "the winds are at a level that we are a little more comfortable with, but its still a risk". wonderful)

we were slowly rising in altitude and awkwardly making small talk as we were sitting in between stranger's legs... Trying to distract myself from what was really happening. There were a lot of funny stickers and things written on the inside walls of the plane (if you could call it a plane.... more like tinfoil with wheels? quite the contraption) in front of us, we had a few drawings on the wall of the plane that said

"steps to skydiving"

1. Jump out of plane 2. Scream 3. Pull parachute 4. Land on ground.

(and don't fart on your instructor)

The sticker on the window was just one example of the types of things all over on the inside of that craft.

ohhhhhhhh how could i forget?? on the back of our harnesses... that big orange square? any guesses what it says?? it says

DANGER

in massive letters and then the following.. accompanied by a photo of a stick figure with a nonfunctional parachute.

Parachute equipment may malfunction or fail to operate.

come again???

thats very interesting now that i see it once we're past the point of no return..

The very worst part, personally was when they threw open that hatch of a door.

(which i was sitting squished up next to)

and then it becomes so loud with wind and the engine... you can't hear yourself think.. you can't even hear yourself scream... because trust me. I was screaming and the video didn't even catch it.

The instructor informed me that i had to get my legs out of the plane and hold my harness straps and sit on the edge.

uhhh wha?

so i'm sitting... feet out of an AIRPLANE, holding my straps, staring ... well.. at the ground. which (by the way) was SOO freakin gosh danged far below us..

then.. lo and behold.. my strapped-to-my-back friend sort of just.... rolled us over the edge.

This photo, my friends, is the photo of the worst fear I've ever experienced painted onto my face. That first couple of seconds out of the plane, going from having something under you, seeing nothing below you until the ground... and then falling into that nothing... is the scariest feeling ever. The last thing going through my mind was "what am i doing....." and then we fell....

the look on both of our faces says so much for that exact moment.

After those first few seconds, i don't know how its possible.. but you get used to the falling feeling and you more feel like you are floating? its because the ground doesn't seem like its getting any closer because it is so far away!! BUT... here is the kicker, we were flipping and i looked and saw the airplane above us getting small really really freaky fast.. and it really kicked in that we were plummeting. PLUMMETING. 130 miles per hour.