I went skydiving yesterday.
That’s probably the most epic first line of any post I’ll ever write. Part impulsively, my friend, Peter, and I decided last week to go skydiving since his birthday is coming up soon. Skydiving was on our bucket lists, so I jumped at the opportunity to join him.
Skydiving is scary, exhilarating, and peaceful all at the same time. I felt a lot of nerves on the plane ride up to 14,000 feet since we were sitting in a dinky plane with a metal garage door that opens to the unknown. All of my nerves bundled up to one moment sitting on the edge of the plane with my feet hanging in the sky until the guy strapped to me pushed off and we free-fell for 60 seconds to 6,000 feet. Falling through the sky isn’t as scary as you would expect. I anticipated that falling feeling you get on a roller coaster or when you wake up in the middle of the night from a dream, but it was only like that for a couple seconds when you jump out of the plane. Instead, the free-fall made me feel like a special operative cutting through the sky on some kind of secret mission. Once I pulled the chute, I just sat in the air and enjoyed the beautiful sight of miles of farmland and rolling hills.
That’s what a bucket list item feels like!
I’m sure all of you have things you want to accomplish in your lifetime. You may have trips you want to take, people you want to see, or activities you want to do. Go and do the things you have been waiting for. You’re not getting any younger. If not now, when? Someday will never come. The more you tell yourself that you will do it later in life, the less likely it is to happen. The world isn’t waiting for you to feel like it.
It may seem scary, but some of the greatest things sit on the other side of fear. What’s standing in your way of going after the things on your bucket list? It could be a training plan, a calendar to keep track of when you want to accomplish your goals/dreams, or finding a friend to go on the journey with you. It may just be a metal garage door in a tiny plane that is waiting for you to sit on the edge and push off into the sky.
I’m not advocating for spending all your money but follow the adventures on your heart. Save your money, make plans or impulsively take a trip, and go experience what the world has to offer.
Make 2020 your year. Make this decade your decade. Check something off your bucket list.
I appreciate you.
-JP