au•da•cious [aw-dey-shuh s] –adjective
1. extremely bold or daring; recklessly brave; fearless;
2. extremely original; without restriction to prior ideas; highly inventive:
3. recklessly bold in defiance of convention, propriety, law, or the like; insolent; brazen.
4. lively; unrestrained; uninhibited.
I recently went skydiving for the first time. It was simply incredible. It’s one of those things that cannot be described…only experienced. I can say unequivocally that every single emotion I had was pure – whether it was fear, awe or elation – not diluted by reason. I’m still in disbelief that I jumped willingly out of a perfectly functioning airplane at 12,500 feet, my body barreling towards the earth at 120 miles per hour… but hey – it was on my bucket list. I don’t know if I will ever do it again, but at least I’ve done it once.
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| The view from the plane, right before I jumped |
Maybe you’re one of the folks that thinks skydiving is a definite way to bring yourself closer to that inevitable end - death. Many “well meaning” people went to great lengths to repeatedly describe to me about what could go wrong (as if I couldn't imagine that on my own). One helpful soul strongly suggested that it was irresponsible for me to skydive because I am a mother.
Well, screw that.
My thinking is this: Life is short. People like to live under the illusion that if they live meek, unassuming lives, following all of the “rules”, it will somehow insulate them from the random cruelties & disappointments of life. It doesn’t. They also want you to stay inside the box with them and get agitated and fearful when you won’t.
Every time leave your house, you take a risk. Your best bet is to have fun with the time you do have and go balls out to do the things that are important to you. Fear is the price of ambition. Skydiving wasn’t about just jumping out of a plane. It was about feeling the fear and doing it anyway - a requisite for success.
