So the hubs and I went to Vegas over spring break in March and got the crazy idea to go skydiving.
Here’s what led up to the decision.
1. Years ago I saw a blog post about a lady I admired who had gone skydiving in Morocco. I thought… THAT IS CRAZY AND I WILL NEVER DO THAT!! But I secretly admired her for having the courage. I was sure if I ever did it, I would squeal like a dying pig.
2. A year and a half ago, I went into a MASSIVE depression. I had been living in the basement of a church, all alone, in the middle of an Alaskan winter…. It’s dark almost the entire day, 30-50 BELOW zero (F) most days. So isolation + dark + cold = crazy me. I went into one of the darkest, terrorized mind-sets I’ve ever experienced…. intense fear. I couldn’t find ANY thoughts that felt good or helped me to lift up out of it. I eventually moved back into my brother’s house temporarily and not even their sweet little puppies playing by the warm, crackling fire could lift my spirits. I was at emotional rock bottom. The ONLY thought I could come up with that eventually helped me to start to feel better was: “I won’t always feel this way.” Somewhere deep inside I knew that was true and I clung to that for dear life.
In this fearful state, I discovered an audio download somewhere on the internet (can’t remember what it was or where I found it), that said to overcome our fears, we have to continually do things that frighten us. The man told how he skydives frequently to overcome fear. And in that moment, I decided I wanted to skydive someday. It still seemed like a crazy, far-off, won’t-ever-happen kind of thing, but I had the desire. (My fearful state eventually lifted, btw).
3. I told my family members about it and that summer, my sister and brother went skydiving for the first time and LOVED IT! So I knew I had to do it.
4. We decided to go to Vegas this year on a whim (we looked up the cheapest airline tickets we could find and lo and behold, they were to Vegas, so to Vegas we went)… stayed at the Bellagio (with the cool water fountains outside!), saw Cirque du Soleil, etc.
Then a funny and quite intriguing series of events happened….
As we were renting our car from Enterprise, the guy asked about our trip plans. We told him we were doing indoor (fake) skydiving, where you hover about 3 feet off the ground, in a padded room, with air blowing up at you. HA HA! He said, “Why don’t you just do the real thing?”
“Oh, no, we said. TOO SCARY and what if we DIE?!?”
He stated that the guy jumping with you has probably had 10-15,000 jumps under his belt and doesn’t want to die EITHER, so they will probably fold the parachutes VERY CAREFULLY and that he, himself, had gone skydiving many times.
We looked at each other and thought…. HUH! Maybbbeee.
Then as we were driving to the Hoover Dam (which was awesome but I accidentally deleted all my trip photos so can’t show you any), we saw 7 parachuters coming down from the sky and I turned to Tim and said…
“I think I really wanna do it now!”
And he agreed.
And then I insisted over and over that I was SERIOUS and he said he was too!
So I googled Las Vegas sky diving, clicked on the first link I saw, ordered our spots and off we went the next day!
HA HA!
It was hilarious because I wasn’t scared until half way up when my instructor guy RIPS open the door without telling me.
From that point on, I was RATTLING. My entire body, teeth and all, were shaking uncontrollably.
When it was finally time, he said to tuck my legs under the belly of the plane, lie my head back on his shoulder… and… and…
My brain FROZE. When he was tapping, I was supposed to spread my arms out into the “banana” position, but I wasn’t thinking at all and didn’t even notice him tapping me at first.
The whole way down I was just in shock and FREEZING. It was wayyyyyyyyy collllddddd….
And then the parachute opened, relief flooded through me, I thanked Jesus profusely that I didn’t die, almost threw up because we started spinning, and then boom. We landed. It was so fast!
And it was done. And I can’t say I had any tremendous spiritual awakening or brilliant life insights… I remember thinking that I NEVER wanted to do that again… but I’m SO glad I did it. And who knows, I might do it again someday.
I think I proved something to myself that day… that our greatest fears CAN be faced and overcome and life is only as scary as we make it.
I hope this inspires you to get out there and do that thing that frightens you and know you are loved and supported by a friendly universe that is on your side. 🙂
Enjoy my funny faces… Chandi
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Awesome Chandi, well done for being brave
You’re a better woman than me! My fear isn’t skydiving- although I don’t think I ever could- my fear is chasing my dream and having it fail. I want so badly to quit this corporate 9-5 life and spend my days creating the beautiful things I love that make my evenings so happy and selling those things to people I know will love them as much as I do. But money has a way of getting in the way of everything.
Wow! You are quite an inspiration! I think you are far more brave to share your inner struggles than to jump out of a plane! Go you! 🙂
Holy Sh*t, wow that looks intense!! Glad you were able to fight your fears and have fun!
Wow!! thats awesome that you did it and thank you for sharing not only the video but what was behind your doing it!
You go girl! That was great. In my 67 years I have overcome many fears. I still wonder how I did it. You will go a long way my girl. Remember to always enjoy life
With gusto!
Good for you, Chandi! Great story and inspiration – thanks so much for sharing 🙂
Thank you for sharing this Shandi, it really is inspiring. Coming from someone who has been in that dark dark place, I give you huge props for getting beyond it, creating your wonderful business and then jumping out of a plane!! Wooooohooooo!! Go Shandi!!!!
You are one phenomenal young lady! I wanted to skydive in Cancer but was told that I was too small at 4.6. I have had bilateral hip replacements twice. Just want to know if your feet touched the ground when you landed? If so, i wouldn’t be able to handle a hit like that. Glad to have met you!
Skydive in Cancun.
Hello Charlene,
From what I’ve seen and know, people with no use of their legs( who live in wheelchairs) skydive as well as older, very lean(as in skinny) veterans, they all land on their duffs every time!! Sooooooooo maybe…………… Try a different place to skydive, it’s worth a shot if you really want to do it :).
I’ve had hip surgery(on R hip )and I’m only 5′ tall and I am going to book a spot in the spring if they won’t do it in the winter here in Canada. Who knows maybe we’ll both be posting our skydiving photos!
Hello Chandi,
That was soooooo awesome girl!! Thank you so much for sharing both what you were going through in that dark place and the fantastic ability to overcome your fears!!
Marie
I know this is long past your post, but I had to chime in! I had a very similar experience. I was newly sober, maybe a year into my new life. In sobriety programs they always say “walk through the fear”… Good lord, EVERY DAY just existing, I was walking through fear!
One day someone said something about skydiving…(I was probably of a similar mindset as you at the time) and I said “omg never! That would be terrifying!”… As I heard the words float off my tongue, I knew…. Thats what I had to do.
I went out as quickly as possible (just to hurry and get it over). I did the static line… That’s where you go out the same day; you jump by yourself – not tandem; but you have a cord attached to your ripcord to automatically open it for you.
I did it!…. I loved it!!! Then I wanted more of a challenge… I tried the accelerated free-fall. An entire weekend of training and when you finally jump your on your own, however there are two jumpmasters, one on each side.
It was unbelievable!!! The static line jump is at 5000 feet…free-fall is 15,000 feet.
I got so thrilled with it I ended going out EVERY weekend. Everybody would come out on Friday and camp on-site to get an early start.
After 14 jumps I had to quit…I was enjoying it TOO much!! Not only was it taking up all my time, butit was taking up all my money!!!!
I commend you for walking through the fear!!! Not only is that a lesson you will never forget but one you will use the rest of your life!!
Lauri