Wow, so I looked at the date on my last post – three and a half months ago. Not exactly what I planned on when starting up this thing but well… it happens. It’s not that I haven’t had a lot to write about, just haven’t really set aside time to do so which leads me to why I’m writing this now – I should start making time to write. Actually, I should make time for a lot of things but writing is one of them.
There is a lot of talk around this time of year surrounding new years resolutions, I don’t usually set new years resolutions but pick areas of my life that can use some improvement. This year, I have earmarked the following areas for improvement:
Health I don’t have set goals around this as I’m fairly healthy now but I would like to continue my push towards a more healthy life. Career I still don’t know what I really want to do with my life, I would like to get closer to figuring that out this year. Knowledge Keep up on current events, learn new things and of course also work on career. Financial I will be paying more attention to my finances this year and increasing my savings. Other I would like to post two posts a week to this blog.
So picking areas of improvement is all well and good but how am I going to improve them? The following list is a rundown of the tasks I will be putting into action to improve:
Go to the gym five days a week (health)
Read at least one hour per day, five days a week (career, knowledge, financial)
Eat at home five nights a week (health, financial)
Bring a lunch to work three days a week (health, financial)
Write three times a week (career, knowledge, other)
Meditate for 15-minutes, five times per week
Attend one public event every two weeks, this can be a seminar, a lecture or any other gathering of like minded people (knowledge, career)
So that is all, not the most strenuous list of resolutions or plans for the coming year but we’ll see how it goes. I will be keeping track of the above and providing an update in June.
I have always wanted to go skydiving; it seemed like the ultimate in experiences. Jumping out into nothingness, hurtling through the air at 200km/h, safely gliding to the earth under the safety of a parachute and of course – living to tell about it while making everyone who has ever wanted to do it jealous.
I have tried several times over the years to go and had a lot of people that wanted to go too but when it came to actually booking, no one stepped up to the plate. As a result, with a lot of things, it was sent to the pile of things that I will probably never have the chance to do. That is until I heard the story of a first jump from my dear friend and the author of InspiredRepublic, Parneet. Well that was it, I’m going!
I didn’t want to go in Southern Ontario, no offense but there are more beautiful places and this had to be special. Since I was going down to LA for business anyways, Southern California seemed like a natural choice. There are several drop zones in and around the LA area, I chose Skydive Elsinore as it came highly reviewed from my research into the subject.
Everything was set – activity, time and place. Now I just had to do it… In the run up, I received one of two responses from friends and acquaintances. “I’ve always wanted to do that” and “why?” Well the answer to the why is quite simple, why not? For all the folks who “have always wanted to do it,” do it! I have yet to meet someone who has taken the leap who has regretted it.
So what’s it like? Well, it’s kind of difficult to explain but I will try my best to describe the experience.
Booking it was as simple as any other appointment, no real emotion there except the one that comes with the draining of my bank account.
The drive out there was where the excitement started to creep in, I can’t believe I am really going to do this.
Upon arrival, a bunch of release forms had to be filled out. This is where the first semblance of fear started to creep in. Oddly enough, the question of uncertain death never once popped into my mind until this point.
Then comes the waiting period, excitement starts to build again as you watch the other jumpers come in with smiles ear to ear. This period lasted a couple hours, one of the last chances to bail but the thoughts of my untimely end were well out to lunch by then.
“William will be jumping with Bob, get geared up Will!” Finally, my time comes; I get geared up, meet my tandem master and feelings of giddiness wash over me. My camera person comes over, introduces herself and we start shooting the video. We head over to the plane mockup and we go over how to jump out – simple enough, the tandem master does all the work. I can do this without hesitation.
Then the plane lands and we line up to get on, this is it! No backing out now, William. We get in, buckle up and we take off. I get a nice seat by the door to watch as we slowly climb altitude.
Oh shit moment number 1 – After what seems like an eternity, the camera person taps me on the shoulder, points to her altimeter and says “Halfway there, Will” – I look out the window, and start questioning this whole idea of jumping out of a plane. Who knew we would go this high up.
Oh shit moment number 2 – Another eternity later we reach altitude, 13,500 feet. The door opens, first reaction, get as far away from the door as possible. No can do as my tandem master digs his heels in. I watch the three guys in front of me get ready to go. First guy jumps out, hmm, that seemed pretty easy. Second and third go, pfffft, I got this.
Now it’s my go, they motion me towards the door but no freakin dice, my body locks up and the colour drains from my face. After an eternal struggle with my conscious mind, I move towards the door all the while thinking “ok, you dragged me this far but there is no way you are going any further.” The tandem master has another idea though as he starts rocking back and forth, then launches…
We are out and now picking up speed as gravity pulls us towards the earth, it takes a couple seconds to gain my composure and after 12-14 seconds we are hurtling towards the ground at 200 km/h. At this point you can’t hear anything, it’s somewhat difficult to move and it is pretty damn windy. Totally awesome though. The camera person gets over to us and amuses us with various expressions and what not, good times.
After 60 seconds of total free fall and the adrenaline pumping like mad, we deploy the chute and everything just stops…
Finally having the guts to look around at this point, it’s really quite beautiful. Everything is quiet, nothing is moving, and it feels like for a brief moment in time, it’s just me. Of course then Bob would speak up and ruin it but prior to that, it was all me.
We slowly glide to the ground, it’s over and I survived! The rush would last me through the week and the memories, forever.
So I’ve finally gotten around to doing it, but why? Well perhaps I should have thought that one out a bit more but the general reasons are pretty simple:
Keep track of what I do so I can never forget
Serve links to things I find interesting
Share my completely inane thoughts and ideas
Improve my writing
Ideally I would have had a couple posts already written but this isn’t an ideal world so we’re all just going to have to take a deep breath and deal with it.