To throw myself out of a plane, or do the other thing?

Tuesday, Apr 16, 2002

So I have to decide by the end of the day today whether or not I'm going to go skydiving on Saturday. There's no question that I want to, but there's fear involved, and having stood on the platform of a 250 foot crane and faced the prospect of intentionally stepping off, I can't imagine that jumping out at 14,000 feet would be any easier.

I want to feel the wind rush by me at 120mph. I want to glide on a parachute with nothing to hear but my heartbeat. The problem is I don't know how much I'll enjoy the fall, knowing that I won't feel safe until the chute opens. Jumping out of the plane would be hard, but 60 seconds of freefall? Terrifying.

I have 8 hours to convince myself that it's terrifying in the good way.

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