June 22nd, 2010 | 3 comments | Skydiving

Remember that one time I moved to Chicago for an internship, dove in head first and kind of forgot to come up for air until Memorial Day weekend of this year? Right, that was my first year here. And it was totally awesome, don’t get me wrong, but this skydiving thing has completely and totally rewired my brain.

It’s rewired how I look at things in several ways; how I check the weather, how I reach for my handles in the order that I’d pull them when I’m wearing my backpack, and how I feel about my free time. It’s so much more than jumping out of planes. Skydiving, like many of my newly found adrenaline-junkie mentors told me this weekend, is a lifestyle change.

I’ll spare you from getting really into the rah-rah part of it, about how now I can tell myself that I literally can do ANYTHING since jumping out of planes is what I like to do in my spare time. That’s a good chunk of it. And that’s some powerful stuff. But what’s more the community aspect of it. I have never, EVER, in my life walked into a place and felt more at home and accepted and not having to change the way I talk, think, behave, or interact with people. When I’m at the drop zone, that is when I’m really, truly unfiltered.

Nobody there cares what I do for a living. Nobody there cares about what I’m wearing (unless we’re talking about rigs and jumpsuits and helmets and altimeters, then they care, but not about the other stuff). It is the most unpretentious, warm environment I’ve ever been exposed to. Couple that with a sport that totally and completely relaxes me, and you can see why I’m addicted.

I’ve got the bug and I’ve got it bad. The past two weeks have been challenging as I start to figure out how to have a life outside of my office. Without kids or a spouse (or boyfriend, or anything resembling a relationship, for that matter), I was totally okay with working my face off. I enjoyed it. A lot. And now, I’ve found something else that I’m crazy about, beyond just work.

If you know me, you know that I love what I do. I’m insanely immersed in and obsessed with the digital/social/emerging media world. I love this blog, I love networking, and I most certainly love learning from the best and the brightest, no matter where they are, or where they come from. I never thought I’d have as much drive and passion about skydiving (or anything else for that matter) as I do about the work that I do. It’s really, really interesting to watch it all unfold.

On Sunday, I got through levels two and three of AFF with no problem. I hit all of the components of the dive flow, I corrected mistakes that I made in previous jumps, and I had two awesome stand-up landings. Level four got me though. Barry (my instructor) was wearing a camera and the battery died, so it was hard for me to remember what was happening, and I couldn’t see my mistakes. So I repeated level four.

When I was done with my fourth jump on Sunday, I was angry. I landed short of the drop zone in the corn field. I couldn’t figure out how to get stable in freefall. I wanted to get back up and do it again but I knew I was too tired. I had met my limit for the day. I probably should have stopped at three jumps, but that’s part of learning.

And the best part about the whole thing is, there is ample room for learning and everyone is ridiculously supportive because they’ve all been there. One of the reasons I love this sport so much is that every single person that asks me about the dive has a tip for how to get better. They don’t send me off and tell me to ask someone else. They don’t tell me to ask other students for the answers. They pause, listen to my questions, and answer them thoughtfully. Every single person is there to help me grow in the sport. And everyone has a story about making the same mistakes, and they’re not afraid to own the fact that they too were once a student. There are some skydivers at CSC that have thousands of jumps. They don’t walk around like they own the place.

And they’re not this awesome because they aren’t busy. They are busy. Most of the instructors are doing 10-15 jumps per day on a steady day. They harness up their students, review the procedures with them, get on the plane, jump out, land, and do the same thing with the next student. It’s nonstop. And they still manage to pause to take time to help everybody else out.

I’m sure not all dropzones are like this, but I’m happy that mine is. It’s like one big happy family. And it really makes me excited for the weekends.

Up next: I am going to nail level four (third times a charm, right?) and ::crossing fingers:: hopefully get through AFF this weekend. Then it’s on to solo jumps. And saving for my own gear.