Now

"How many times have you done this?" I asked.
"This is my first time"
"Oh... Have there been any previous injuries from here?"
"Yeah, around three deaths, and a couple of broken bones, but other than that, if all goes well, it's actually really fun!"

I gave him a skeptical look, while I tried to imagine the worst possible outcome of my life at that moment.

"Hahaha, relax! I'm fully certified, and I'm not new. I've done around 500 jumps to get my license and have been in this business for over twenty years now. No deaths or broken bones," he said.
I smiled back, amused at his humor.

So here I was... about to jump off a plane. The anticipation, the thrill, the excitement. What would it be like? Flying? Falling? Floating? I had to know. I had to find out.

It was a decision I had made on a whim.

On impulse.

I suppose I had always been this way - acting on something without a second thought - and now I'm just extending it to other realms of my life. Maybe the consequences of this characteristic I possess will catch up with me someday, but for now, I had made this one and I awaited its effects.

I looked up to see the plane moving towards us and the instructor signaled to me to walk ahead. It was a small plane, with one seat for the pilot and space to fit four other people. I lowered my head, careful not to hit it, as I tried to scramble into the space behind the pilot seat. My instructor followed and sat opposite me, leaning against the parachute he had strapped on his back. He turned on the camera he had fastened to his wrist and aimed it at my face.

"Well? What do you think?" he asked.
"I seriously can't believe I'm doing this!" I exclaimed, trying to shout over the sound of the aircrafts' propeller.
He laughed, "Are you sure you want to go ahead?"
"Hell yeah I do! Let's go!"

The aircraft raced forward and took off as I leaned over, taking a peak out the scratched window. I saw the ground drifting farther and farther away from me.

"How high are we going?"
"10,000 feet. We're at 5,000 right now," he said, still aiming the camera at my face to record my expression at this piece of information.

He motioned for me to turn around and put on my safety glasses. I struggled to get up in the small space without gripping onto the pilots seat for support, while I untangled the goggles from its strap and pulled it over my eyes. He attached the hooks from his harness onto mine and crawled to the door, pulling me with him. I refrained from looking outside, waiting for him to give me a signal to jump as he put his foot outside for support, steadying himself.

"AAAAAAHHHHH!" I screamed, as I felt the floor lurch away from me and I was hurled out of the airplane.

He jumped with no warning!

I was plummeting to the ground, the cold air whipping my face with an unbelievable force. I felt paralyzed as I let the wind carry me according to its wishes. The instructor pulled my arms and feet back, reminding me that I had to go into a 'Scorpio Position' he mentioned in the training session we had before starting. I tried to move my arms, but the gymnastic position that I attempted to do was futile against the strong wind.

Suddenly, I felt a jerk at my shoulders, as if somebody were trying to pull my arms out of my socket. My entire body was yanked back as he opened the parachute, slowing down our fall.

"Wooooohooooo!" I yelled.
"You want to say something?" he asked, as he turned on the camera again.
"The wind seems to be blowing my slobber everywhere, so I hardly think this is appealing to whoever is watching this video right now. But oh my god, this is absolutely wonderful!" I said, as I tried to wipe away the unattractive drool that spewed out of my mouth when I screamed.

He maneuvered the parachute so that we spun around in a full circle, drawing me in a graceful twirl. I focused on the view before me, amazed at where I was.

Nowhere.

I was in the middle of the sky, with no barriers.
I wasn't peeking through a window to see the world below me anymore. I wasn't wondering what it felt like to experience the wind so high up anymore. I wasn't pondering about the wisps of clouds up close anymore.

I was living it.

I inhaled the sweet scent of nothingness, as I felt myself being drawn into another spiral. My arms sliced the air in one smooth swift motion, while I pulled them back to hold onto the harness. It was as if I were performing a pirouette in front of the world; my audience in their cars, homes and offices.

"Do you remember what we talked about? Put your feet up right now like I told you," my instructor said to me.

I lifted my legs up, ready to land, as we inched closer towards the ground. It felt like we sped up while we descended, gliding onto the grass like little kids slithering down a water slide. We skidded to a stop a little further ahead from where we initially landed and the parachute fluttered to the ground behind us.
I sat there for a couple of seconds, replaying those twenty minutes I spent in the air, trying to etch it into my memory: the flight, the flying and the landing.

I don't think I can possibly convey in words what it felt like to undergo such a wonderful experience, but I can say this:

Whether it be taking a risk and plunging into something that I don't know the outcome off...
Or having no place for fear as I sense something words can't describe...
Or just trying to do as much as I possibly can today...
This incident has reinforced what I've believed and tried to follow all my life:

I live in the now.

____________________________________________________________________

"You must live in the present, launch yourself on every wave, find your eternity in each moment. Fools stand on their island opportunities and look toward another land. There is no other land, there is no other life but this,"
-Henry David Thoreau