As a child growing up in Brooklyn, Michigan, my family often traveled to the nearby “big” city of Jackson. On the most common route we would often pass the Napoleon Skydiving Center. Oddly, I can not ever remember seeing a single canopy in the sky, yet their billboard I would notice on every trip.
With my siblings we would often say we would do it one day, along with bungie jumping and surely a dozen other things. By time I turned eighteen, I was still eager but things never seemed to work. I remember calling them a few different times to inquire about the prices and such, yet I was never able to unify the time and money.
A few months before I turned twenty-nine, I saw a Discovery Channel special; Marta Empinotti BASE jumping off of the Auburn Bridge from a semi truck driving over it. Whether it was the science and analysis her feat required, the excitement and commitment of her team, or maybe just the idea of being on the edge of life and then going over it.. it called to me. My first jump was scheduled for my birthday and for the rest of that story, you’ll have to search for my skydive blog.