The Benefits of Sky Diving are Far Greater than You Just Might Think, by Amy Hall
While you may be pretty stoked at one day crossing skydiving off your bucket list, it may prove more beneficial for you to do sooner than later especially if you’re a student or in the job market.
What do you think would happen if you moved skydiving from your bucket list to your college or job resume? When any college or employer looks at your resume and sees your entry about skydiving you may just be surprised at what they actually find.
YOU UNDERSTAND RISK BETTER THAN MOST
People who participate in skydiving accept risk in the interest of broadening their horizons. They’ve also developed the tools it takes to face challenges head-on without flinching.
In real life, this translates into a magnetic team player who naturally thinks more experimentally. They also understand that actions have consequences that must be thought of before any decision is made. This mindset is priceless in life and probably pretty invaluable for any business.
YOU WORK WELL WITH OTHERS EVEN WHEN THE PRESSURE IS HIGH
Skydiving isn’t for the demure, or faint of heart. Last year Father Ben had over twenty jumpers to participate in St. Michael’s fundraiser (which raised 30,000 for the parish). There were dozens of other skydivers on the four planes we filled up, and these are always carefully orchestrated for a balance of “grooviness”, as Father Ben calls it, and safety.
Anyone skydiving must be able to listen carefully to plans as they are communicated, to execute at any moment the skills required and always be mindful of the safety of everyone on the jump.
Don’t forget that all of this needs to be done in the pressurizing condition of free-fall and canopy flight. It’s a great workshop for group dynamics and team building as you can imagine.
Even on that first tandem skydive, you’re asked to be a thoughtful, attentive, functioning part of a small team. When you’re connected to your tandem instructor, he or she is counting on you to listen carefully to all instructions and follow them to the best of your ability. There’s a very large element of participation.
YOU ARE DEDICATED
Each year we are surrounded with skydivers who are making jumps again and again just to get a complicated jump totally nailed. There are skydivers who hop on plane-after-plane-after-plane with their group of jumpers to get a particular synchronized jump perfected. Last year there was Adrian, the 16-year-old son of Mark, who is one of the tandem instructors. Adrian packed his dads parachute diligently after each jump and with such precise attention to detail that he thankfully noticed a super tiny tear in the mesh and alerted Mark before he took up my 13-year-old daughter for her first tandem jump.
At the drop zone, you’ll find plenty of skydivers who are willing to get out of planes in the dead of winter, when the air is so cold it feels like a razor blade cutting through your skin. Which is almost how it felt during last year’s jump when the temperature had fallen. When skydiving in cooler temps, turtlenecks are our friends.
When you come to make the plunge and jump with us, you’ll meet jumpers who have worked hard enough in the sport to be able to push the limits of physics in ways which are unimaginable.
Suffice it to say: the mentality of a drop zone is all about optimization. What company wouldn’t want someone on board who steeps themselves in that spirit all weekend long?
YOU CARE ABOUT BEING A PART OF SOMETHING BIGGER THAN YOURSELF
Each year we have people from all over our diocese participate in St. Michael’s skydiving fundraiser. Yes, we have the cool priest, occasionally the fun youth director, teachers, and even middle and high schoolers. But we also have in our group a cardiac surgeon, a real estate appraiser, a philanthropy manager, interior designer, an accountant, a nurse practitioner and a chancery employee or two.
Skydiving is a sport, yes – but it’s so much more than that. The St. Michael “sky-family” is a community. We come from all walks of life but share a common set of values–one of which is the value of mutual support.
In fact, don’t be surprised if the serious-looking, buttoned-up professional sitting across from you next Sunday at mass has a skydiving rig stashed under his office desk. We’re everywhere, after all!
Are you ready to check skydiving off your bucket list or add it to your college or job resume? You can register to go with us this October by signing up now. Space will be limited to 32 and we have reserved the entire facility so we can have mass at the drop zone!
Sign up by going to www.stmichaelmemphis.org/fall-in-love-st-michael
