My Near Death Experience

October 28th. Two days before my 21st birthday.

How was I celebrating?

By jumping out of an airplane of course.

My brother and I had had these plans for weeks. It worked perfectly because his birthday is two days after mine, so this way we could celebrate together. We had an appointment at 7:30 A.M. at Jump Florida Skydive.

We ended up arriving in Plant City around 6:45 A.M.. It was freezing, and I was only wearing a light sweater, despite my brother telling me to dress warmly.

We checked in and being the crazy kids we are, decided to upgrade our jump from 11,000 ft. to 18,000 ft.

We waited around until it was our time to suit up. We talked and watched as other skydivers landed from their jump.

My brother was the first to get all strapped up. Being that my brother had previous jumps under his belt, his instructor skipped the safety instructions and walked him over to the plane.

I was left alone, sitting on a bench wondering what would happen next.

Finally, a man named Allen called out for me. He introduced himself to me and began to strap me up. He made polite conversation asking where I was from and if it was my first time skydiving.

We began walking toward the plane and when I got on, there was nothing but two benches that I slid onto.  The plane filled up with 13 people and the pilot.

We took off, and up we went.

My instructor would constantly tap me on the shoulder and show me the altitude we were reaching.

He went through the safety instructions with me, and if I’m being honest, I wasn’t really paying attention. Thankfully he repeated them later on.

As we reached 11,000 ft., four tandem skydiving partners jumped out of the plane. The only people left in the plane were my brother, our instructors, and I. All that was running through my head was “Oh, we’re going up higher?!”

I began to shiver, not so much from my nervousness, but from how cold it became the higher and higher you go.

It finally came time for us to jump.

I felt like I was practically already hanging out of the plane while my instructor was still holding on to the railing inside. We got into position, and then we jumped.

The ringing was the first thing that happened. My head felt like it was about to explode the whole way down; it was the only uncomfortable part about the entire experience.

We went belly up, and I immediately closed my eyes. Once we were falling face first, I opened my eyes.

We free fell for about a minute, the wind rushing past us as barreled down to the ground. I felt like the skin around my mouth was flapping around but if I closed it, it was hard to breath.

After about a minute of free falling, my instructor pulled out the parachute, and I could finally take in the scenery. The ringing finally stopped but I still felt like I could hear a slight whistle going through one ear and out the other.

I looked over and saw my brother flying near us. We looked at each other and yelled out as well as giving each other a thumbs up.

I was still dazed from the experience, so I didn’t’t take everything in as I could have. But I saw patches of blue and green getting closer and closer as we continued to fall. It’s not until you’re up that high that you notice how many bodies of water there actually are.

When it came to landing, my instructor did all the work, and we slid onto the ground. He unhooked me, and I ran over to my brother.

We were both on a serious adrenaline rush. We had just survived jumping from an airplane 18,000 feet.

Driving away from that place felt so surreal. I had just done the craziest thing in my life to date.

I definitely recommend everyone go skydiving at least once in their life.

I know I can’t wait for my next jump.

HCXOXO,

Vanessa Rivera

• birthday
• flo rida
• skydiving