Tempting Fate

Several months after the end of a long relationship and I was still heartbroken. It wasn’t a perfect relationship but at the time I couldn’t see the problems through my pain. In my late 20’s I was feeling as if time was running out and that perhaps I would never be lucky enough to enjoy a loving relationship. I’d started drinking too much, eating poorly and feeling hopeless. Perhaps it wasn’t the best time to start to learn to parachute, but I threw caution to the wind, literally, and made my enquiries.

I had done a tandem jump twice before, the first was 8 years earlier, after a drunken night out with some friends. The next morning I woke up to the memory of what I had quite easily and heroically agreed to, and either the realisation of what that meant or the effect of too much alcohol had me regretting my foolish verbal jump. In any case we all departed as planned and after a long hot drive, safety briefing, getting fitted with our jumpsuits and meeting our instructors we made our way to the plane. In short, the jump was spectacular! It was the most powerful rush I had aver experienced and despite being afraid and uncertain my trust was rewarded beyond what I had imagined. I loved it so much that I took my father for a tandem jump a year later. Another wonderful experience and one that I thoroughly enjoyed sharing with Dad.

So, back to the heartache. I had started taking more risks than I had in the past. I didn’t want to die but I used that pain to push me to do things that I had been (and still was) afraid of. I decided that I should learn to parachute, not tandem, but on my own. It would be exciting, dangerous and if the worst happened then at least I would die doing something I enjoyed and it would make me feel like I was conquering some fear.