So this was sort of an unexpected birthday present. Apparently I'm going skydiving with my family in May when I head to the Midwest for a week to find a grad school apartment and attend the weddings of two friends - my high school roommate one weekend, a college buddy the next.
I have a hard time imagining my mom and dad suiting up and jumping out of a plane, but it's going to happen. Actually, I can imagine my dad talking about it in the same voice he uses to describe his fishing exploits - and I could see him talking my mom into it, so perhaps it's not so far-fetched. My cousin Mark, too - who's the skydiving veteran of the bunch, as he went with a group of Olin students when he was a Babson undergrad a few years ago.
This will cross off another thing on the "list of things to do before I die" list (which I'd love a less morbid name for). Travel and learning and flying and soaring and freedom are a recurring theme for the things I dream about doing - and it feels absolutely wonderful to do them now, to steadily work towards these things one (okay, a dozen - I'm ADHD, I multitask, some of these quests are longer-term) at a time.
Here's to flying.