Out of Her Mind -- Musings on Education and Life

Lessons from Skydiving:  Make Your Sixty Seconds Count Procrastination.  We all do it.  But not while skydiving, although I do know a couple of people who have slightly procrastinated pulling.  Yes, I procrastinate sometimes when it actually comes to jumping--the fear factor, the feeling that everything else in my life needs to be in order before I actually jump. But when I am in freefall, every second matters.  Every second is individual, fleeting, yet somehow slowed at the same time.  I have sixty seconds to learn as much as possible about flying my body.  Sixty seconds to adjust my fall rate, take docks, break, redock, and then track away before deploying, and soon, I am sure I will be filling my sixty seconds with other complex, fun tasks. When I find myself wasting time, I set a timer and a goal--to see how much I can get done in sixty seconds.  Because that is all I have on any given skydive before my parachute opens and I shift from flying my body to piloting my canop

Preparing to land The first time I jumped this canopy, I was distracted by the sheer beauty of the sun streaming through the brightly colored cells. It used to be that as soon as my parachute opened, my brain would freeze in terror as I hung helplessly  four or five thousand feet above the earth, looking down at where I needed to land, praying to somehow magically end up where I needed to be at the right altitudes. These days, I squeal in delight when the slider comes down and my fall rate slows from 120 mph to a gentle glide as free fall transitions to canopy time.  I collapse my slider, do canopy control checks, clear my airspace (not necessarily in that order), and then fly my baby, my trusty, reliable parachute, pushing its limits, learning the controls, finding the sweet spot, playing in the wind.... And now, I am gaining the ability to take in more of the beauty and solitude of these eagle-eye views, truly being present in those adrenaline soaked, spectacular moments t

Oh No!  My Altimeter is Broken: Tales from a Crazy Skydiving Student Jump C-2, for the second time.  Jump 7.  It had been nearly two months since I had last jumped due to weather.  This time I was with Andy.  I was excited to fly with Andy.  He was a newly minted AFF instructor, and he had done my ground school and talked me down on radio, so I trusted him. This jump was uneventful except for the fact that I had a few more nerves than usual, given the long break between jumps.  Thankfully, I got to the dz early, stalked the wind board, reviewed the SIM, and got a great refresher from Andy before gearing up and getting on the plane. This time, I was waving off and pulling lower than ever before, at 5,000 feet.  I was nervous to deploy at such a low altitude (I know!  I know!  It's really NOT low).  I spent my time on the ride up to altitude reviewing the dive flow with Andy and noting specific altitudes--my decision altitude, my hard deck. And then I jumped, Andy taking gri