Tick Off the Bucket List

Do you have a Bucket List? My Bucket List fluctuates as there are things that I cross off as accomplished but there are things that I add because I find them interesting and I’d like to try them or take part in them.

Parachute jump was one of the biggest things for me to achieve. It’s been on my Bucket List for quite some time and somehow I always thought that it would be too complicated to pull off.

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With the help of the amazing Red Devils team, proud to tick this off of my Bucket List!
My husband and I  never shared our bucket lists in full with each other but when, a few years back, I learned that my husband to be was in British parachute regiment, I did mention that I’d like to parachute jump.

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The clouds live  🙂
Fast forward a few years to the early 2016 and one evening, my husband asks me out of the blue if I’d like to do a parachute jump! What?! Where did that come from?! YES!!! He explains that some of his friends are in the Red Devils team and that I can do jump, i.e. tandem skydiving with them if I wanted to.

If I wanted to?!?! I’D LOVE TO! We get on arranging THE jump straight away, but at the time we could not match my availability with theirs, so we left it for a while. Until one Monday eve in October. My husband checks his phone and asks me if I was still up for a parachute jump. You bet I am!

Wednesday? he asks nonchalantly.

Wednesday? This Wednesday?!  (Panic. I didn’t expect to be on the schedule that fast!) Hmmm… Ok… this Wednesday…  I’ll do it. I think… What do I need to do? What should I wear? What should I do?!

Screw it! I’ll jump!

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The fall through the clouds
The Wednesday came and we headed to the airfield. I was nervous, excited, scared. The guys were amazing, though. I went through the ground training, got suited up and waited for the take off time.

The scariest part of the ground training was when the instructor explained that I will be hooked up to his front and that he will be sitting at the edge of the door. I’ll let that sink for a second… If he sits at the edge of the door, that means that I am hanging off the plane, hooked to his front with my legs bent below the plane. I’m outside of the plane at the height of 13000 feet!

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WTF, I know, right?!
I got on the flight and was so nervous that I couldn’t talk but I couldn’t take the smile off of my face. At least I think that was the case…

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On the way up…
The jump was a mindblowing experience! The adrenalin rush, the astonishment! I was screaming with the thrill!

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The view from the parachute
I will go back and do it again and I know it will be even better. My husband is entertaining the idea of both of us completing the freefall course so we can jump together. I liked getting out of my comfort zone so I play with that idea too…

 

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