I have always been a bit of a dare devil. I like the rush that doing something dangerous gives me. The thought of "this will probably end fine... but what if it doesn't?!". It is all exhilarating, and I love it! My family members aren't really risk takers, so growing up we did a lot of white water rafting and snow skiing because it was the most risk the others would take. Two years ago I found my adventure group, or the adrenaline junkies as we like to call ourselves, and we've been doing fun and risky stuff ever since!
The group is comprised of five key people: Chelsey Elliot, Amy Burns, Kat Ball, Lauren Goss, and myself. Other people join in some of the activities, depending on what they are, but the five of us are pretty consistent. We have done some pretty fun things the last two years like white water rafting down the Ocoee... twice, taking a day trip to Six Flag to ride all the roller coasters, running races, roughin' it at Bonnaroo, concerts, dumpster diving, water skiing, tubing and much more.
Our most recent thrill... SKYDIVING!
Chelsey thinks she is a princess, so every July she has a birthday week, not a birthday, but a whole week dedicated to her day of birth. As ridiculous as this is, we don't mind because it is our excuse to do crazy things and blame any bad results on her birthday week! This year Chelsey decided she wanted to go skydiving. Skydiving is a thing that is on most people's bucket list, so we figured bring it on!
We found a Groupon that made Skydiving 50% off, so we all went ahead and bought it even though it was months in advance. July rolled around and we made our reservation for eight am on Sunday, July 22! It was in Waverly, TN so we made the two hour drive there late on Saturday night and stayed in a hotel. We woke up early Sunday morning, got ready, packed up, and drove to the airport in Waverly! Lots of paperwork was filled out, rightly so... we were about to jump out of a plane, safety videos were watched, gear was put on, and then we were ready!
We had six people in our group, the adrenaline junkies and Mike(Chelsey's stepdad), so we had to be split up into two groups of three. The first group was Amy, Lauren and Kat. They went up 10 minutes before we did and made the dive! Lauren went first because she said if she didn't, she would be too scared after seeing someone else jump. Amy went second... with tears streaming down her face and finally, Kat ended the first groups turn. They all went and made it down perfectly fine, and they all loved it!
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| Amy giving a thumbs up from 13,000 feet in the air! |
It was time for Mike, Chelsey and myself to get on the plane and head 14,000 feet into the sky! We had decided before loading the plane that Mike would jump first, I would jump second, and Chelsey would close us out. On the way up I realized that Mike was seated in the very back of the plane, which meant I would be going first, Chelsey would follow me, and Mike would close us out! We were the group that wasn't really nervous. I never really had a nervous moment, even seconds before we jumped I was excited, not nervous! Mike seemed calm right before I jumped, but Chelsey had a little moment of panic seeing me get up and ready! We all jumped and landed minutes apart on the ground!
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| Right after I jumped! |
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| Thumbs up at 13,000 feet in the air! |
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| Seconds before I landed! |
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| Chelsey and her "I'm crazy" face 13,000 feet up! |
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| Chelsey and her "ya I just did that" face after she landed! |
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| Mike 13,000 up! |
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Mike thanking his guide after landing!
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The experience was absolutely amazing! We got to soar through clouds where you could feel the moisture on your skin. We did full circles in the sky. Everyone free falls for 1 minute before the parachute is pulled, but it feel like you are free falling forever!! Once the parachute is pulled, you get to relax and take in all of the amazing views around you. I'm not exactly sure how long it took us to float down, but it felt like maybe 5 minutes. I would advise anyone to go skydiving if they can! I would do it again in a heartbeat! Once your feet are back on the ground, you feel a sense of accomplishment and it's very empowering!
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