By NICK VILLALOBOS, Editor in Chief
The wind was roaring, and the weather was cold as I dropped from 11,000 feet to the hard earth that October day.
The day was Friday, Oct. 21, and it started earlier than any other day on fall break during my senior year of college.
My friends, Jesse, Bruno, Dep and I met in the second floor lobby, and then we departed for Kansas City, Missouri, to leap from a single engine airplane to try our hand at tandem skydiving.
The idea of taking the leap came a week earlier when our friend told us about her experience skydiving and the awestruck moment that she had gotten from it.
Before she was even able to finish the story of her experience the four of us guys looked at one another and said, “We’re in. Let’s do it.” And just like that, we were committed.
Now, the weeks prior to when we made the decision to jump was trying for each of us guys.
For me, it was a stent of rough patches within my walk of faith that I struggled with. For Jesse, the struggle came from the stress that his nursing classes brought him. For Bruno, it was a change in life plans that had him struggling. Then finally, for Dep, the struggle was from the tiring hours of both work and school.
Maybe each of our personal struggles led to us making the decision to skydive, maybe it wasn’t, but only the Lord above knows the real reason for the jump.
When the jump day came, nerves were at an all time high within the group, especially after the terrifyingly worded paperwork, frightening training video and somewhat reassuring pep talk from the instructors (Whew, each of those literally made me sweat that day).
But, after those three things were out of the way, the four of us were each suited up in our harnesses and directed to the airplane. Then liftoff. (To be continued)