Jumping Out of a Perfectly Good Airplane

I've Been Tagged. So Here Goes… Steve Umstead Scores a New Sci-Fi Fan

Jumping Out of a Perfectly Good Airplane

The Bucket List

My friend D.C. McMillen posted a blog about her bucket list the other day. On that list, she included that she wanted to go skydiving. My first reaction was, are you nuts? Of course, I have to admit that I came very close to actually taking part of a skydiving trip with some coworkers back in 2000 when I was working in the Human Resources Department at an inbound customer service call center.

Skydiving Not For Me

One of the escalated help desk operators had the bright idea of getting a bunch of us together to take advantage of a group rate skydiving adventure. At the time we had about 800 employees, so surely he'd be able to sucker—I mean convince—enough of us to go along with him to get the discounted rate. He recruited one of the administrative support staff to help him with this effort. She eventually got around to me and stressed how much fun it would be to go skydiving as a group. We would even get a video of us plummeting to our death…I mean they would capture all of the fun we're having while skydiving. She stressed that we would get a great rate if we got at least ten people to go (or maybe it was eight; I can't remember exactly). Now, I'm all for a good adrenaline rush (I'm a huge fan of high-speed roller coasters with loops), but I draw the line when it comes to freefalling from an elevation of thousands of feet.

Needless to say, I didn't do it, and I was teased for being a chicken by those who decided to go, including the guy who organized the event. The small group of coworkers went on their freefalling adventure the following weekend. Just a mental note: if you believe in the philosophy of "If at first you don't succeed, try, try again" skydiving is probably not for you.

Who's the Chicken Now?

The following Monday morning, my coworkers that went skydiving that weekend told me all about their exciting trip and how much fun it was. One of them showed me a video of her freefall, and I had to admit it did look like fun. I asked if she had any video of the guy who organized the skydiving trip and she just laughed. Why was she laughing? This guy who acted all macho and told everybody how much of an adrenaline rush skydiving would be didn't follow through himself. He chickened out! What's more, is that he chickened out while he was on the plan as everyone else jumped out the plane. Yeah, I gave him hell for that! :-)

A Perfectly Good Airplane

So, I guess part of the moral of this story is if you are going to plan some high adrenaline pumping adventure with some friends and coworkers, make sure you have the guts to follow through yourself. Otherwise, you WILL NOT be allowed to live that one down. On that note, I promise to never ask you to go skydiving with me, because of this simple fact…I will NEVER jump out of a PERFECTLY GOOD AIRPLANE!

Here's a video I found on YouTube of people skydiving with an inflatable shark! :-)