Face your Fear… Jump out of the Plane

“Go skydiving!” they said.

“It will be fun!” they said.

And every time my answer was: “Hell no!”

Marcus agreed to skydive and the kids and I went with to watch him… That was already wrecking my nerves enough just thinking about watching him jump.

The event took place close to us, in Ficksburg.

Simon had convinced some of our other friends to also jump… So there were a few first time jumpers. Then I also heard that he had convinced his mom, Adri, to jump! Wow, Adri built up the courage to do this?! (Simon has already done about 70 solo jumps so I consider him a pro.)

Will I regret not taking this opportunity to jump? And for a moment my fear of regret was greater than my fear of falling… So I signed up.

I wasn’t wearing the right shoes so Nina was kind enough to let me use hers. Marcus’s jump went well and, without much thought from my side, my name was on the board to jump in the next batch after the little plane refueled. Next thing I was walking towards the plane with Steve, my tandem parachute, and 6 other professional jumpers. Steve has jumped out of a plane over 9000 times! (And he’s still alive!) Steve was so relaxed and confident. He kept me calm. (well, as calm as I could be under those circumstances.)

I did listen to the pre-jump briefing. Basically what I heard was when you jump out of the plane you need to be in the shape of a banana with your hands crossed on your chest. I actually only realized afterwards that one can uncross your hands when your tandem jumper (in my case, Steve) taps you on your shoulder. Steve just pulled my arms open. My eyes also stayed shut during the free falling. I think I even stopped breathing for a substantial amount of time! Once our parachute was open and we were gliding through the air I could enjoy the ride a bit more… Although I was still petrified. The view was absolutely amazing! Steve pointed out some lions which were right next to our landing strip! I’m not sure if this was meant to calm me down, distract me or stress me more. I think our landing was quite perfect (and we didn’t land in the lions’ den.)

Hannah and Nina came and helped me up and Hannah said I held her hand so hard. (which I cannot even remember!) I think I was so relieved to be back on solid ground. Thanks to ‘my trusty Steve’ who was absolutely awesome at taming my fear.

I am so proud that I actually went through with it and faced one of my fears! (I was really scared of this and never imagined I would actually do it!)

So, I conquered my fear, with Marcus by my side supporting me, Steve on my back as my living parachute, and while wearing someone else’s shoes…. It shows that we need each other to reach our full potential!

Thank you to everyone for the extremely scary but awesome experience!

“You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face.” Eleanor Roosevelt