July 27th, 2010 | 3 comments | Skydiving

There have been some interesting posts coming from my friends over at Skydive Addiction about whether or not we should discuss skydiving amongst our friends and family that don’t have this strange desire to throw themselves out of airplanes.

Adam said the people who haven’t done it just don’t get it. For the most part, I think he’s right. I mean, it takes a special species of human to enjoy what we enjoy doing on the weekends.

But, my family gets it. So do some of my friends. Not all of them, but most of them. My friends that get it are people that have something in their life that they’re just as crazy about as I am skydiving. Be it a band, or cooking, or sailing, or whatever, they can identify with my obsession in some capacity because they feel it for something too. They’ll probably never fully comprehend why I prefer to plummet towards the earth at 120+mph, but it’s better than nothing.

My parents in particular are totally on-board and really get it. They know that skydiving saved me from myself. I was in desperate need of a hobby and friends outside of the work slash social media crowd. I needed a change. I needed, well, anything. I needed something to help balance that out so I didn’t burn out. Then I found skydiving.

They understand that it’s a lifestyle change. They understand why I go out there every weekend, regardless of whether or not I’m jumping. Chicago is a fast city. Hinckley is not. I like having both. I can be go, go, go from Monday morning to Friday afternoon and then live my life in slow motion once I get to the drop zone. It’s funny, because in Chicago when we’re making plans, I always have an opinion and am a bit stubborn if plans don’t go my way. In Hinckley, I really don’t care where we go or what we do after we’re done jumping because I make decisions all week long. I like to take a break from being a decision-maker and let it all come together.

My parents also know that a lot of it is the people. Since I’m so quick to make friends and give 110% of myself to these new friends that I deem are worth caring about, my mom is telling me to guard my heart. Who knows what will happen after season is over? Most of my new friends are nomads and follow the sunshine when it gets cold here. Once it’s too chilly to jump at CSC, some of them head to New Zealand, Florida, Arizona, anywhere where they can go instruct during the off-season, and then they come back in March or April. Mom said she’ll be happy to hear that I’m still as happy as I am now in six months, when things shut down here. I tell her I’m not thinking that far ahead because one, that’s not healthy, and two, I’d miss out on all of the awesome that is happening RIGHTTHISSECOND. I don’t want to be sitting around in November wishing I had done XYZ during season but didn’t because I was too concerned about what would happen down the road.

So maybe it’s less about whether or not we should discuss skydiving with non-skydivers, but more about what we discuss and how we should discuss it. Would I ever try to discuss the mechanics of the four-way jump I did on Sunday or try to explain why I keep landing in the corn (despite the fact that I was trained by incredible skydivers) with non-skydivers? Probably not. But can I try to translate my passion for the sport into a language they can apply to their own lives? Absolutely.

For me it’s a lot more of the lifestyle slash philosophy slash personal growth that I get from each jump and each minute spent around fellow skydivers. And, fortunately, that stuff is easy to share with the people who don’t jump out of planes.