Natural High

Stephen Tellone                                                               Tellone 1
Dr. Haber
ENC 1101
January 25, 2011
Word Count 705
                                     
Natural High

For years I was satisfied with typical hobbies and entertainment until one day I asked myself “Is this all there is?” When thinking of what to do, I suddenly felt like doing something outrageous. The first thought that came to mind was sky diving. How out of control, I thought: the speed and the element of danger. I never knew what a natural high was until that day: the drive to Sky Dive City, flying to the drop zone, jumping, landing and living to talk about it.
On January 5, 1999, two close friends and I set out for an adventure of a lifetime. I was as giddy as a schoolgirl; just talking about it gave us all goose bumps. A certain feeling came over us all; none of us ever experienced such a lively bliss. After we arrived at the famous Sky Dive City, the butterflies in the stomach cliché became a reality and kicked into high gear. Looking up over the jump sight, small explosions of color filled the sky as jumpers pulled their chutes and descended gracefully to the ground. After approximately an hour of prep and instructions, we were ready to take on this challenge.

Tellone 2
The walk to the plane was so surreal, I couldn’t believe that I was actually going through with this, realizing that once I was in the plane, there was no turning back. After about fifteen minutes in the air, we reached the drop zone. It was time. The first set of jumpers approached the open door; the sound of the wind rushing by was intense. They locked their arms together and excitedly exited the plane. Next up were the first time solo jumpers, who had been practicing on the ground earlier going through their jump plan like a choreographed dance routine. After both my friends had exited the plane, it was finally my turn to jump. As the instructor and I...