Yo Adrian. I Went Skyyyydivin'

This past weekend was a weekend I’ll never forget. I went up to Philadelphia to see my old roommate, Zach Wells, with my current roommates, Travis Shirkman and Cameron Seavers. We got to mock a famous movie scene, got cheesesteaks, and went skydiving. We also went to independence hall, but since that’s not on my “bucket list” I won’t be talking about that. Why do I quote bucket list? Well, I haven’t written this list out, but I’ve been making mental notes since high school about what I want to do before my life here is through. In a day and a half I got to cross out 3 events on my “bucket list.”

First thing we did when we went to Philly was we ran up the steps that Rocky ran up in the movie. I didn’t realize how out of shape I was until this moment. Plus, I was wearing 20 pound boots that made this much more difficult, but once we got to the top we started jumping around just like Rocky.

My dogs were barkin’. Now, why did I want to do this? I don’t know, maybe because the Rocky series is the greatest sports movie series of all-time. I have used multiple speeches from the Rocky series in actual life situations. Thank you, Rocky. Preciate it.

The next thing I crossed off my bucket list was, “get philly cheesesteaks in Philly.” I’m glad this was the second thing we did and not the first because if it was the first, there’s no way I would have made it up the Rocky steps. Honestly, this was the most life-threatening thing I’ve done on my bucket list. I had a cheesesteak from the two most famous places in Philly, Pat’s and Geno’s. That’s right. We all had 2 cheesesteaks each. These place are rivals that are located right acorss the street from each other in somewhat of a rough part of town, so I knew that I wasn’t going to get the best of customer service, but that’s exactly what I wanted.

The lines to both places were wrapped around the building. I was instructed to order “wiz with.” What makes a philly cheesesteak a genuine philly cheesesteak is when you put cheese wiz on the sandwich. Being the naïve suburban fellow I am, I was expecting to have to explain myself on what I meant by “wiz with” once I ordered. As I got closer to the front of the line, I heard people just saying, “wiz with” with no explanation. So, to fit in, I just said, “Wiz with.” In which the server said, “$9.50.” There’s the poor customer service I was looking for. Both cheesesteaks were delicious, but I think I liked Geno’s a little better. Regardless, both places treated me condescendingly and drenched my sandwich, as well as my heart, in grease. Pat’s and Geno’s, you’ve exceeded my expectations.

Last, but certainly not least, we went skydiving. If I’m being honest, this is the reason why I’m writing this blog. I’d like to give you a preface of why we went skydiving. One day after a long’s day of work, I was getting fed up with how boring my life was getting. I would work, come home, play guitar, and sleep. One night, after work, I was becoming obsessed with this idea of skydiving. One of my roommates, Zach, was on board, while my other roommate, Travis, thought we were joking. I take that as a dare, so now I’m even more obsessed with the idea.

Fast forward a month later, my roommates, including Travis, and I are traveling up to Philadelphia to jump out of a plane. To say the least, I was the nervous guy in the group. The night before, I woke up wide awake at 5:30am thinking about everything that could go wrong that day. What if the chute doesn’t open? What if I slip out? What if my instructor is suicidal? Yes, these are scenarios that were actually going through my head.

The skydiving place was in south New Jersey, so it was about an hour away. Our car ride playlist consisted of “Free Fallin’” by Tom Petty, “Live Like You Were Dying” by Tim McGraw, and Christian music so that we could ask for God’s favor. We were singing at the top of our lungs like it was the last time we’d ever sing again. I felt like I was going into battle alongside my bros. We just had nervous conversations the majority of the car ride, then Travis became dead quiet in the last 15 minutes of our car ride. When asked why, he just said, “I get nervous before I do big things.”

We get there, and they put us 4 in a trailer to watch an instruction video. One thing that broke our nervousness was the guy on the video. He looked like Father Time.

 We immediately busted out laughing, took pictures of the screen, and proceeded tweeting/facebooking/instagraming the picture. We have now missed the entire video because they decided to have Bin Laden instruct us how to jump out of a plane.

After we sign our life away, our tandem jump partners were strapping us into our harnesses. Instead of tandem partner I am going to call them jumpmates. Get over it Microsoft. So, Travis’s jumpmate comes over to him and says, “Rough night last night?” Trav says, “No. Does it look like I had a rough night last night?” Jumpmate says, “Huh. Must just be me.” Trav’s face goes white. My jumpmate’s name was Rob, but I thought it was Tom, so we’ll just stick with Tom. Tom was from Toronto. Tom was, also, crazy. I’m sure he had a wild past, maybe even a wild present.

We get in the plane. I’m ready to jump out, but Tom informs me that we are only at 2,000 feet. We have 12,000 feet to go. I paid to have someone video me the way down, so I was going first out of all the tandem jumpers, which was just me and my 3 roommates. There were 2 solo jumpers that jumped right before me. The time has come. The 2 solo jumpers jump first. Referring to the solo jumpers, right before I jump, my roommate, Cam, laughingly said, “His shoe fell off!” What I heard was, “His chute fell off.” I was panicked and confused.

Why is Cam laughing about this? Well regardless, it was my turn, and there was no turning back now. My feet are dangling over the edge, and now I’m petrified. All of a sudden, we roll out. Everything they taught us in the instruction video goes out the window, literally. My body goes limp. For the first 5-10 seconds, I black out. I have no idea what’s going on. Then, my conscience returns back to me. I realize that I’m flying, and my adrenaline is going through the roof. I started fist pumping, obviously since I was in New Jersey, like I’ve never fist pumped before.

It was raining as we were falling, but we were falling faster than the rain. We were free falling for 1 minute at about 120 mph. Tom pulls the chute, and now we’re floating 5,000 feet in the air. It was about a 5 minute ride, once the parachute was pulled, to the ground, so Tom and I had some good conversations. I asked Tom if it was normal that I couldn’t feel my legs. So that I won’t get in trouble, I’ll water down what Tom said, “Just wiggle your butt around.” So, I did, but it didn’t help at all, which concerned me. Now, I was starting to question the character of Tom.

Why did he want me to wiggle around? His advice doesn’t even make sense. This is getting weird. Either way, I started to ask Tom how long has he worked here. Tom said, “I came here about 5 years ago. I just realized the business world wasn’t right for me, so I left and have been doing this since.” I’m sure it wasn’t right for you Tom. Regardless, Tom got me to the ground without any problem, and for that I’m ever thankful. I highly recommend skydiving. It doesn’t matter if you’re scared of heights or not. You gotta do it. If you want to see my experience skydiving, you can check out Facebook. For some reason, Blogger isn't letting me post the video.

Needless to say, this past weekend was one that won’t be forgotten. A word to Trav, Cam, and the Big Cat Zach: I was honored to taste death at multiple times with you guys. Peace.

 

Clear eyes, full hearts, can’t lose.

Josh