My BIG Jump into an Adventure Addiction

Over the past year and a half at Farmingdale State College I acquired many different new friends throughout my classes. One friend in particular that I met was in my Anatomy class, his name was Telly. He was a veteran from the army and was coming back to school to become a PA(Physicians Asst). He helped pass anatomy with an A and me Telly and a few others in the class that studied together became great friends. On the side Telly works at Skydive Long Island in Calverton out on eastern LI. Ever since we all met Telly all he ever talked about was skydiving and his "summer office" and was always tried convincing us to come and jump with him. We all loved hearing his stories and seeing pictures but everyone still thought he was crazy, except me. I had always had an interest in adventurous activities, it started off small when i was younger and loved going camping and fishing but as I got older my outdoor adventure addiction kept getting stronger. I always told Telly that I wanted to come jump with him so even after 2 semesters of anatomy together I continued to stay in touch so that I would be able to one day fulfill my need for adrenaline. 

THE JUMP

 
I began making plans with Telly mid summer of 2011. I was busy with work and it was very difficult for me to find someone to want to come with me. I didn't want to have such an amazing and memorable experience with just the people in the plane the day that I chose to go, I wanted a close friend to come with me (besides Telly who I'd be jumping tandem with -- meaning I'm attached to his chest for the jump) It wasn't until late July early August that I began seriously picking dates for my jump when I started dating my current boyfriend, Eric who had previously went skydiving before with Skydive Long Island. Eric is just as much an adventurous person as I am, so I knew we would have a lot of fun since it would be his second jump and my first. Soooooo we made the appointment with Telly and mid September one early Sunday morning, Eric and I woke up at 6am and began the drive out east to Calverton for our jump. We arrived and watched the training video as to how to properly jump out of the plane, and got strapped up into our harness'. OF COURSE the guy putting on my harness had to crack a joke about my height and said "Did Telly forget to tell you to stop at KidsRUs for your kiddie harness?" They had to max out the entire harness because I'm so tiny and basically the size of a 12year old.

The whole drive to Calverton and while we waited for our names to be called, Eric kept saying how much he hated me for making him do this again and I was beyond ecstatic and so excited to jump i was like a little kid on Christmas getting a new puppy. It was until we were crammed into this itty-bitty plane with 10 people, 20 if you count the person attached to them and maybe 23 if you counted the camera guys that were jumping with certain people. I kept thinking "WTF am I doing,omg omg omg". Eric was now the one being excited and laughing at me freaking out, Telly kept trying to keep my attention out the window showing me different parts of Long Island. Each person and their tandem jumper scootched to the open door of the plane one-by-one and I was at the point where I was thinking "Well....there's only one way down and I gotta jump, LETS GO!!!" Eric yelled BYEEE right before I made my way to the door with Telly. 

The initial free fall was the most amazing thing I had ever experienced. You can't hear anything but the wind and just enjoy the view of the Island. It was so beautiful, you would never get to see the overview of the Island the way that I did unless of course you jumped out of a plane. I wasn't afraid at all, I was just looking around at everything from as far east as Montauk to as far west as the city and parts of Connecticut. I never knew how beautiful Long Island really was until I saw it from above. After the free fall, Telly pulled the shoot, we flew up and then floated the rest of the way down. We basically just chatted while we made our way back down to the ground for a nice,easy stand landing. I now understand why Telly bragged about how much he loves his "summer office" I'm officially ADDICTED to the rush of adrenaline (Thanks Telly,haha) . I plan to go again this upcoming season as well as when Eric and I go to Colorado to visit family. I want a different view this time, I can't wait.