How has skydiving changed your life or that of someone you know?

[Tuna-Salad 0]

I think the title says it all really. I have a friend who started the same day I did and it has changed him so much. He works 2 jobs and never really had time to go have fun.. he always just worked and never took time to enjoy the things in life. Now after skydiving his eyes have been opened to the world around him that he took for granted all the years before. I've heard that skydiving changes lives for the better or worse. How has it affected your life or that of someone you know?

Millions of my potential children died on your daughters' face last night.

[SuperGirl 0]

it's the best antidepressant whenever the shit really hits the fan. for me at least.

[PeregrineFalcon 0]

I'm too new to know for sure, but this year, I'm less likely to get on a student's case for screwing around instead of doing their homework. As a result, they're less educated since I only give homework that matters rather than just busy work. I care less about their education because I just say to myself, "Fuck them. It's their choice, I'm going skydiving this weekend."

So, for my mental health, it's great. For the slacker kids at James Logan High School, there's one less positive influence in their lives pushing them to do their best in school.

But...you never know...I could snap out of it some day.

[jephprospect 0]

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I'm too new to know for sure, but this year, I'm less likely to get on a student's case for screwing around instead of doing their homework. As a result, they're less educated since I only give homework that matters rather than just busy work. I care less about their education because I just say to myself, "Fuck them. It's their choice, I'm going skydiving this weekend."

So, for my mental health, it's great. For the slacker kids at James Logan High School, there's one less positive influence in their lives pushing them to do their best in school.

But...you never know...I could snap out of it some day.

hahaha ya that is kinda how I am. I'm too new to say it's changed my life but at work or even with my friends when something is going down I don't even comment I just smile and go "fuck it i'm going skydiving this weekend" lol. I havn't yelled or been in an argument since i've started jumping come to think of it.

[PeregrineFalcon 0]

Exactly. I never understood surfers' attitudes when it came to this. I tried surfing. It was fun, but it wasn't so big of a deal that I would constantly think about it and not care about real life stressful situations. But this...? Damn.

[CMiller 1]

It taught me that even something you think is so out there is just a phone call away. I've applied that to many other things, and it tends to hold true. My life is now much richer because I now make more phone calls!

[TEXX56 0]

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I'm too new to know for sure, but this year, I'm less likely to get on a student's case for screwing around instead of doing their homework. As a result, they're less educated since I only give homework that matters rather than just busy work. I care less about their education because I just say to myself, "Fuck them. It's their choice, I'm going skydiving this weekend."

So, for my mental health, it's great. For the slacker kids at James Logan High School, there's one less positive influence in their lives pushing them to do their best in school.

But...you never know...I could snap out of it some day.

haha i wish you were my teacher that would be awesome
and skydiving is now all i think about and its sorta made me slack off on my school work

[bfilarsky 0]

I've made some really good friends at it, and gotten closer to other friends I've had because of it. Otherwise, not too much has changed. I've always been into getting outdoors and having fun - skydiving is a lot of fun and I love it, but so are many other things in the world. For me, thats snowboarding, flying, wakeboarding, scuba diving. I think right now skydiving is my favorite, though

[grannyinthesky 0]

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I care less about their education because I just say to myself, "Fuck them. It's their choice, I'm going skydiving this weekend."

You do have tenure, right/????

"safety first... and What the hell.....
safety second, Too!!! " ~~jmy

POPS #10490

[PeregrineFalcon 0]

Yeah, I have tenure, but so what? It's not like there's any teacher accountability anyway.

[DSE 5]

You know the rules of skydiving and your spouse, right?
First she hates skydiving.
Soon, she hates your skydiving friends.
Finally, she hates you and all your skydiving friends
And divorces you for a skydiving friend that quit skydiving.

Skydiving can empty your bank account and emotional life faster than you can possibily fill it up by jumping. But some of us try anyway.
I think I'm starting to lost the race.

[SkyPainter 0]

Well, serious time. I have cancer. Not just one, but two types (lucky me!) One has recurred and is hiding someplace - the scan can't see it yet, but it is there.

Skydiving has given me the opportunity to spit in the eye of serious disease. Each time I jump, I kick cancer in the nuts. And I really live ....

Could be one year, could be ten ...I don't care. Jumping makes me feel whole again, makes me feel part of a community again, and that is priceless to me.

SkyPainter - cause jumping is akin to leaping into a painting!

S.O.S. #1304 P.O.P.S. #10695

Live deliberately; Dare greatly; Land gently
SkyPainter
SOS 1304, POPS 10695, DS 118

[Squeak 17]

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Yeah, I have tenure, but so what? It's not like there's any teacher accountability anyway.

So yo dont consider yourself accountable to your students?

Glad you are not part of my faculty, I tend to upset teachers who dont do their jobs very well and seem to care even less.

You are not now, nor will you ever be, good enough to not die in this sport (Sparky)
My Life ROCKS!
How's yours doing?

[Squeak 17]

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You know the rules of skydiving and your spouse, right?
First she hates skydiving.
Soon, she hates your skydiving friends.
Finally, she hates you and all your skydiving friends
And divorces you for a skydiving friend that quit skydiving.

Skydiving can empty your bank account and emotional life faster than you can possibily fill it up by jumping. But some of us try anyway.
I think I'm starting to lost the race.

CAN

if you choose to put it above anything or everything else. but it's not skydiving that empties those accounts, skydiving is a non-entity. it the skydiver the chooses to sacrifice those things

You are not now, nor will you ever be, good enough to not die in this sport (Sparky)
My Life ROCKS!
How's yours doing?

[format 1]

Living or dying finally makes sense.

Who, why, whose, when, where, how, whatever..

If I knew it, I'd ask my mother to have me born in freefall,
or at least through the exit door.

If it's a desease - I'm very fckng sick.

What goes around, comes later.

[Lawrence 0]

Jeez bro, makes whatever problems I have seem non events. Stay strong and keeping fighting my friend. Best wishes.

[RainbowSmurf 0]

How has skydiving changed my life:
I met my wonderful partner at the DZ.
I gained a whole new perspective on my own character.

But that all seems rather frivalous now. My thoughts are with you.

I am my inner child. It's my outer adult I have trouble connecting with.

[elias123 0]

Same here

"In a mad world, only the mad are sane"

[ladyhawke 0]

I'm not as nice as I use to be.

"It is our choices that show what we truly are far more than our abilities." - A. Dumbledore

[SkyPainter 0]

Thanks for the good wishes everyone. Skydiving has added so many new colors to my life's pallette, and many new brushstrokes to my personal life's painting. I value the opportunity, and the sport in a very meaningful (to me, at least) way.

Each person I have come in contact with adds another stroke to my personal painting, and it is getting very colorful once again, after a long period of gray.

Thanks to all!

Chaaaz - AKA - SkyPainter

Live deliberately; Dare greatly; Land gently
SkyPainter
SOS 1304, POPS 10695, DS 118

[mr_music11 0]

Have read quite a few posts as well as entries in Parachutist mag that would make any of my life changes due to skydiving seem small and insignificant.. however I am changed... I can never look @the sky the same, as another poster, its like leaping into a painting!! planes are now only vehicles to jump out of.. large pieces of fabric are only to fasion together with lines to attach me to the sky! (and beer is now the beverage of choice! lol) I have met people that have become my friends.. friends that have become my family and God willing, a lifestyle that I dont have to change anytime soon. Blue skies.

If flying is piloting a plane.. then swimming is driving a boat. I know why birds sing.. I skydive.

[PeregrineFalcon 0]

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Yeah, I have tenure, but so what? It's not like there's any teacher accountability anyway.

So yo dont consider yourself accountable to your students?

Glad you are not part of my faculty, I tend to upset teachers who dont do their jobs very well and seem to care even less.

Lighten up, Francis. I was joking.

Edit to add: <<>>

The "lighten up" applies here too.

[wildcard451 0]

It's killed quite a few of my friends.

[skybill 22]

Hi Charlie T,
Skydiving did not change my life, it has been my life!! I made my first jump when I was 18 years old. I'm now 63 and just "retired" from my last job as a QC Inspector for "Sunpath Contracting." Just think, I coulda' been an Insurance agent or what ever but "NOOOO!!" not me! "That smell, that fresh nylon smell... I love the smell of nylon in the morning....it smells like SKYDIVE!!!!"

SCR-2034, SCS-680

III%,
Deli-out

[Guru312 0]

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... I love the smell of nylon in the morning....it smells like SKYDIVE!!!!"

Holy shit, an old timer like me who loves the smell of nylon! I thought it was just me.

Skydiving was my life for 30+ years either as a DZO or a jump pilot.

I think what influenced me most from skydiving is the long, long friendships that I have with guys/gals I taught to jump or who jumped from my plane.

I hang around DZ.com because The Herd is no longer having boogies and I simply can not seem to relate to those in the non-jumping world. There seems to be something more 'true' or 'honest' or 'open' about jumpers. A no pretense and no bullshit perspective that seems to be missing in the non-jumping world.

Thanks, Bill, for reminding me how much I love the smell of nylon...in the morning or at night using it for my bed on the floor of my Cessna. I'd guess there are a few ladies out there who have a similar enjoyment for that smell.

Guru312

I am not DB Cooper