On Sunday, August 8th at approximately 5:15 P.M. at Freefall Adventures in Willamstown, New Jersey, I finally, finally achieved my dream that has been swimming through my mind since my first year at Rowan University: I FINALLY SKYDIVED!
What started out as a distant dream almost three years ago (when I was a poor college student), at last became one of the greatest experiences of my life (where I am now a poor college graduate) and a treasured, everlasting memory.
I honestly can not even touch upon and fully explain in words how surreal a feeling my skydive was. The fear, the exhilaration, the serenity…all the things you hear about your first skydive is all true. Throughout my experience, I had all of these emotions pulsating through my veins. Sometimes one after another, sometimes all at once.
It all starts with the car ride leading up to the dive. The anticipation that builds during the drive to the airport. The fear that festers, churning your stomach into knots while you climb 2 and 1/2 miles into the Earth’s atmosphere, making you stop for a second and question yourself, “What the hell am I getting myself into?”
Next comes acceptance. While you’re flying, you look out of the plexiglass door of the plane, feeling the air from outside slipping itself through a crack and brushing over your face, you look down, squinting at the people’s houses below that have now changed into tiny grey and black dots amidst a series of little green squares of people’s yards and farmland and realize, “This is really happening.”
Jumping out of the plane, you surrender yourself to the situation. You realize you’ve gotten yourself into this insane predicament and the only thing you can do is enjoy yourself and go along for the ride. The moment you realize this, your body is overwhelmed by this intense calm…and at that moment, you feel at ease.
The jump is nothing other than surreal. Leaping out of the plane, sending your body traveling down to the Earth at 120 mph; sounds more like a plummet rather than a dive. Instead, the feeling that overtakes you during your jump is nothing short of grandiose. It may sound like a cliché, but the sentiment that consumes your body is nothing short of flying. No nervousness. No awkwardness. No fear. Just the otherworldly feeling of flying, slicing through the air at 120 mph. Just the feeling of such a smooth, gliding fluidity, comparable to swimming…through the air…only at 14,000 feet!
Skydiving is simply an experience of a lifetime. It is something I believe, rather something I KNOW, everyone should experience in their lifetime. It is a moment in my life that I will always apprize. When I am at the end of my life, I know there will be a few standout memories I will reminisce about and smile upon. Spending time with my family, my first dog, Lucky, going to Europe with my girlfriend, vacationing in Cancun with my friends, when I get married and have kids (although not for a long, long, long, long time) and my first skydive, which will absolutely be a part of my valued shortlist.
To deprive yourself of such an adventure would be a crime. Skydiving is one of the only activities you could perform that is able to elicit such a wide spectrum of emotions. Fear. Exhilaration. Serenity. Skydiving allows you to feel life itself. Skydiving is not a sport for the lethargic. It is not something to be experienced by someone who is just idling in neutral, waiting for their life to pass them by. It is instead something to be experienced by someone, looking to enjoy life. It is something to be experienced if you are looking to LIVE.










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The cerebral cortex is one of the various sections of the human brain. Our brains are divided into different parts; each section with its own function and job to complete. 

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