6. skydive

imagine floating serenely in the sky with the majestic Rocky Mountains as your panoramic view; the air is rare but crisp and clean.  everything is silent minus the sound of your own breathing.  it's hard to imagine that only moments ago your heart was racing, pounding as if trying to escape from your chest as you toed the line between the metal floor of the small plane and the nothingness outside.  one hand rests inside the doorframe while the other is flat against the outside of the door.  it's loud and windy and your adrenaline is pumping.  you may even feel a slight tingling sensation, that precursor to urinating.  then you're exiting the aircraft.  you are willingly throwing your body from the safety of the aircraft into the wide open sky.  you hear nothing but a soft woosh and aren't sure if it's your sharp intake of breath or just the sound that accompanies a body escaping the prop wash.  ground school training kicks in and you begin counting, arching, looking, pulling... praying.  they don't teach that but you do it anyhow.  and when everything works the way it should, that prayer changes from a plea to a praise.  you thank God for opening your chute and allowing you to have that amazing view from that incomparable vantage point.  then all too soon, you remember that you still have to land.  you search below you frantically for a bright orange windsock to guide you.  you search frantically in your mind for the next series of steps that will guide you safely to the ground that has begun rushing up at you from out of nowhere.  again, the training kicks in and the next thing you know, you're standing up, breathless with a puddle of parachute on the ground behind you and a sense of victorious accomplishment enveloping you.  there is NOTHING in the world that can compare...