Graduating and Skydiving

A few years ago, I went with a group of graduating seniors to a place outside of Atlanta to go skydiving. (Yes, it was with their parent’s permission.) None of us had ever done anything this adventurous, and we all shared a sense of both excitement and fear.

After getting fitted and geared and watching a brief video, six or seven of us squeezed into a tiny plane. There were no seats or safety belts, just two low benches. Two of us were paying to jump, two were professional tandem partners, one was a photographer, and two were jumping solo “just for fun.” Mark (my tandem partner) and I sat on the floor, our shoulders pressed against what seemed like an awfully flimsy sliding door. The plane rumbled to life, bounced down the grass airstrip, and then we were airborne.

As the plane started climbing, Mark kept an eye on what looked like a big, funny watch strapped to his wrist but was actually an altimeter. It looked like we were really high. “Only 2,000 feet,” he reassured me. We climbed further. Everyone on the plane got quiet, partly because the engine noise was deafening, and partly because this was the scariest part of the experience, even for skydiving veterans - if you don’t get a few butterflies in your stomach right before jumping out of a rickety airplane, what’s the point?

When we were not even halfway up, the door opened, and the solo jumpers did what is called a “hop and pop.” That is, they jumped and almost immediately popped open their shoots. The pull of the wind as the door opened was incredibly strong, and I grabbed tight to the metal strip on back of the pilot’s seat.

At this point I realized I wasn’t yet strapped to Mark, who was wearing the parachute. Seemingly on cue, he reached around my midsection and clipped two lockable carabineers to straps on my jumpsuit that I hadn’t noticed before. Then pulled the straps so tight I couldn’t breathe for a second. “Too tight?” he asked. I glanced out the window, and saw the imposing ground well below us. “Tight is good,” I said.

I put on a pair of flimsy goggles. Mark slid the door open. The wind rushed in and I tried not to look outside. My heart was beating like crazy! Mark shouted “Put your legs out and fold your arms over your chest!” I stuck my legs out of the plane. He grabbed onto the inside of the plane and counted down: “Three, two, one!” Then we pushed off and into a freefall, and the noisy plane engine disappeared above us. For a moment I thought I would die.

… But then I relaxed. Mark shouted: “Put your arms out, like a bird!” I did, and suddenly we felt almost buoyant, the wind rushing past us at an impossible speed but somehow lifting us as well. I started looking around: the sight was beautiful, and the ground didn’t seem to be getting closer to us very quickly. It was an unbelievable feeling that is hard to describe without smiling and speaking faster by the minute!

Then came the time to pull the chord and let the parachute do its job.

As soon as I pulled it there was a great tug; I felt myself being pulled upward as the parachute opened. In a moment we were floating down at a much more relaxed pace. The wind no longer roared, and we started talking. I don’t remember what we talked about; but I do remember taking in all the scenery around us. I could see the skyline of Atlanta off in the distance, with the mountains in the background and sun that was starting to make its western descent for the night.

Freefall from 12,000 feet had lasted about 45 seconds, and after two minutes of parachute drop, we were close to the landing strip again. I saw the plane we had jumped from landing below us and wondered how it had gotten there so fast. And since Mark was shorter than me, we slid along the ground on our bottoms as the parachute collapsed behind us.

This is the time of the year when students and their families are realizing and experiencing many of the same emotions of fear and excitement as that group of skydivers. The excitement of moving forward and the fear of being on their own are evident when it comes to graduation and the thoughts of life after graduation. Today we honor those students graduating from one level of education to another. For some that may mean more studies, and for some that means life. No matter where the journey takes you, or how adventurous your life seems to be, may you hold tight to the One who created you and who will sustain you in every change of life.