Goal #4) Skydive

Any list of life goals seems incomplete without the requisite goal of skydiving.  Nearly every list of goals I’ve ever read has included it.  The Bucket List, a movie about two men who set out to accomplish a lifetime of living after near death experiences, incorporated this stereotypical goal into the storyline.  Skydiving has the allure of being extreme & it makes a list of life goals exciting just by including it.  I wonder if people include it on their lists for this purpose only, I know I was guilty of this when it made my list.

When I moved to the Minneapolis area I learned of a skydiving company within fifteen minutes of my new hometown.  Having a place to accomplish this goal so close to home proved to be a mix of excitement and fear.  The fear arose from the fact that I had put that goal on my list to add sex appeal.  When I began this list, I didn’t have a clear understanding that I would really set out to accomplish any of the things I was writing down.  Boy, was I wrong!

Writing my list of 100 Goals was the catalyst my life needed.  The first goal I knocked off was to start a website.  Had I named it anything other than Hundred Goals, I may have eventually ignored my list but that isn’t the way things turned out.  By sharing my goals with an audience I felt compelled to push myself towards accomplishing them rather than ignoring them.

In less than ten months I have accomplished 15 of my 100 Goals & added 15 more to the list.  I still have 100 Goals but since I started pursuing my ambitions, I have felt more alive than ever before in my life.  As Lester Burnham said so succinctly in American Beauty:

“I feel like I’ve been in a coma for the past twenty years.  And I’m just now waking up.”

I believe that following your goals, however lofty they may seem, can be the beginning of the life you have always only dreamt of.

Earlier in the summer I highlighted a group of goals which I wanted to accomplish by November 18, 2009.  One of those goals was to skydive.  When I highlighted it, I had no idea that I would actually find myself jumping from an airplane 12,000 feet above the surface of the earth only a couple of months later, yet that is exactly the way things happened.

On Sunday, September 27, 2009 I had an appointment with the sky.  A friend had been the motivator that I needed to complete this goal.  A few weeks prior we had a conversation about skydiving.  She wanted to jump and I agreed to jump with her.  As the day neared, my anxiety built.  Saturday night brought restless sleep.  As I tried to sleep I could feel my body tense up with nervousness.  I tried to relax but found myself tense again only moments later.  What was I getting myself into?

The morning of my jump I felt my anxiety begin to melt away.  When we arrived the plane was just dropping a group of skydivers & having the opportunity to watch a few groups come & go helped to alleviate my apprehensions.  I could do this, it might even be fun!

After signing our lives away (literally) we got harnessed up and were soon on our way into the sky.  The ascent to 12,000 feet felt like a lifetime and as I looked out the window watching the objects on the ground grow smaller and smaller I heard someone say “Halfway!”  Halfway?  Really?  I already felt a million miles away!  A few moments later the plane began leveling off and slowing down.  The door on the side of the airplane opened and in an instant my girlfriend was out of the door, plunging towards the earth at 120 miles per hour.

I was next.  Given the situation, I was remarkably calm.  As I approached the door my anxiety welled up inside of me but before I could respond I was falling out of the sky.  A few seconds after exiting the airplane we leveled off and all of my fear and anxiety disappeared.  The feeling of falling vanished and was replaced with a sense of floating through the air.  The wind rushed past me and as I fell I felt a sense of freedom that I had never experienced before.  I felt alive, invigorated.  Sooner than I expected (approximately 30 seconds) I was tapped on my shoulders; my sign to hang on to the harness because the parachute was going to be opened.

As the parachute unfurled and our pace slowed dramatically, I was able to enjoy the scenery around me.  It was beautiful.  I felt so far away from everything yet so in touch with life.  We caught up with my girlfriend and for a while we floated alongside her, bumping canopies as she blew me a kiss.  This was the most amazing thing I had ever done in my life.

Soon we would come in for our landing and all celebrate the success of our jump.  Being back on the ground was a reassuring feeling but I can honestly say that I would have done it a hundred times that day if I could have.

Since many people have skydiving on their list of life goals, I am going to organize a day next summer where readers of Hundred Goals can join me for a day of skydiving in the Minneapolis area.  If you are interested in being a part of this group, please become a Fan of Hundred Goals where I will keep everyone updated on the event.

To see photos of my skydive, click here!  To watch a video of my jump, click here!

Goal #94) Climb Mount Saint Helens

Today I accomplished one of my greatest & most challenging goals on my list, summiting Mount Saint Helens.

After registering for our climb we set up camp at Climber’s Bivouac, a small base camp at the foot of the mountain.  I began to cook spaghetti on the campfire (who says you can’t eat well while camping?) when a stranger wandered into our campsite looking for conversation.  He turned out to be a well seasoned climber who was more than happy to share his experiences and knowledge of climbing.  After an hour of conversation he was on his way and assured us we would see him on the mountain.

As the sun began to sink behind the mountain & the campfire slowly dimmed we decided it was time to try to get some sleep before our early morning.  Soon after settling in we realized that it wouldn’t be a comfortable night as it was incredibly cold.  I suppose we should have figured as much since we had staked our tent into a pile of snow.  I was finally able to fall asleep when our cell phone started beeping.  Low battery.  Now I had to try and fall asleep again & manage to wake up without an alarm.

A few hours later the sun was just beginning to cast its warm rays across our tent, time to wake up.  We cooked a quick breakfast of oatmeal, changed our clothes and strapped on our backpacks.  We were on our way.

The climb started with a walk through the woods where we were soon greeted with a beautiful view of Mount Hood and Mount Jefferson in Oregon and Mount Adams in Washington.  As we broke through the tree line we were welcomed by a huge mountain, one which we would soon be climbing.  We trudged across the snowfield and began our ascent.

We fought through snow and ice, rocks & boulders and dusty ash trails for about 6 hours until we FINALLY made it to the summit of Mount Saint Helens.  The work was worth the reward of sitting at the top of the crater rim looking out at Mount Rainier in the distance.  We stayed at the summit for about half an hour before beginning our descent.

On the way down we scrambled down the boulder fields and once we neared the bottom of the mountain there was a snow slide which we slid down on our butts to reach the bottom of the mountain.  Sliding through the snow was a much more efficient mode of travel not to mention quite fun, however we were soaked by the time we got done.

Once we reached camp we took a couple of minutes to relax before packing up camp and making our way down the road to Oregon.  Our total trip time was approximately 8 hours, not too bad for a couple of first time mountaineers!

It was very challenging to keep pushing towards the summit.  Your legs are practically screaming “I hate you!” with each step you take but no matter how much it hurt we had to keep going, it was so close & we knew how glad we would be once we reached the top.  I think it is like anything that we hope to accomplish, the closer we are to success the harder we push to make our goals a reality.

Whatever your mountain may be, no matter the challenges and difficulties which lie ahead, keep putting one foot in front of the other and eventually you will arrive at your destination.  Keep pushing ahead.

To see photos from my climb, visit my Flickr photo album.