107221444769119344

“I used to have this recurring dream, which started when I was 8 years old. I would remember it vividly when I woke up. In the dream, I would step out onto the window sill of my house, and it would be pitch black outside, no moon nor stars nor lights of any kind. Then I would jump off the window sill and it seemed like I was floating on a big cushion of air. I never saw myself in the dream, I just had the feeling of floating or flying. I had that dream about once a month until I was 15, but by the time I was 16 it was coming about once a week.

It bothered me so much that I told my mother I had to do a parachute jump to find out if the sensation in the dream was real. All I wanted to do was the free-fall bit, but I found out you had to do the static-line stuff first. On my first jump the parachute was open almost as soon as I left the plane so there was no free fall to experience. It took another 15 or so jumps before I could see and feel everything, because there is such a sensory overload when you first start jumping. After that, I never had the dream again. It was directly responsible for getting me interested in skydiving.