I went skydiving for the first time last Sunday. It has been on my bucketlist for quite a few years now so I'm happy I finally made the effort to get myself out to do it.
I did a tandem jump so that I could focus on the feeling of the jump the first time around instead of having to worry about controlling the chute and everything like that. I'm glad I did, it was pretty intense.
It was an incredible experience and I would recommend everyone try it. The sensation is so unnatural that it really expands your understanding of who we are and what we're capable of.
I have every intention of jumping again. I think next time I will put in the extra effort to do the training required to jump on my own. I have to reach that point so that I have a chance to try base jumping in a squirrel suit at some point as well.
It feels great to have this new experience, with any luck the next few weeks to the next couple months will include a handful of new hobbies and experiences for me. My next goal is to get in contact with a specific tattoo artist so that I can finish the prep work for my first tattoo and get that started. It will be a full back piece and I'd like to get it done before 2015, so I need to get a move on, especially since the artist I'm hoping to work with has been fully booked lately to the point that he's using automated e-mail responses to tell people he won't even be talking to any new client's until October 5th.
Wish me luck and get out and live your lives, don't settle for the same old rut.
--James