2 Things I Learned Sleeping On A Couch In An Airplane HANGAR
I was not homeless. Disclaimer: this article does not include a sad story of my life.
I was there for a reason: skydiving. That is why I was sleeping. I could hear excited and nervous murmur around me.
The couch was almost in the middle of the aerodrome, weirdly. It was ragged and full of more holes than a non-Panzer tank in World War II. Beside it, there was the airplane. It was the smallest one I had ever seen. We were going to be packed like sardines later on, though I didn’t know it yet. I was sleeping.
The aerodrome was about a million miles from my house, so I had to take a bus to get there. I didn’t even tell my family I was going skydiving. It wasn’t such a big deal to me at the time.
I had woken up 15 hours earlier than I normally would have, to show up on time, and also because the Airfield was very much in the middle of nowhere. I speculated it was so they could easily do cover-ups in case they had a low budget for parachutes and well…
So I was on my couch and people were murmuring beside me. I was no longer sleeping. They had woken me. Why?
The chatter beside me had turned from slightly excited if sleepy to very nervous and agitated, all from talking to one another in the space of 15 minutes. I should also mention I had got there earlier.
Lesson Number 1:
I learned that there is no point in feeling afraid before your time is due. It affects other people’s sleep. Also, I knew I was on the ground and safe. The furthest I could fall was from the couch to the ground. If I was going to be afraid, I knew it was going to be when my legs were hanging out of the airplane.
So I was going to wait for that time. Some people backed out in the time it took for me to have my nap because they imagined they were in a scary situation before they were. They lost their non-refundable deposits. Nobody was going to force them to jump, even if they were already in the airplane. But they didn’t give themselves the chance.
Lesson Number 2:
I’m starting to feel like an army sergeant just from writing these headings.
Alright. Here goes. This is the good one:
NORMALIZE!
So I was starting to feel a bit queasy myself by the time we were putting on our equipment. What does NORMALIZE mean? It means to return to normal.
So I thought, as we were putting on our straps:
“I’ve put on gear many times in my life before. This is normal.”
As we climbed into the airplane, I thought:
“I’ve been in airplanes before.”
Everything I did up until the scary point, I reminded myself that I had done before. It worked a CHARM. I had worn straps before. I had climbed into airplanes before. When I looked out of the window, I reminded myself that I had definitely been that high before, many times…
It had a calming effect, for me at least.
Then We Flung Ourselves Out Of The Airplane:
It was a tandem dive, but we still had to jump. Since I had normalized everything I had done up until that point, the MAXIMUM amount of fear and/or stress I had to feel on the entire trip was when my stomach did its little somersault as I began to fall.
I felt calm as I floated down in my parachute. My cheeks had been fluttering about like in a cartoon beforehand, by the way. But if I had allowed myself to become a bundle of nerves before, I wouldn’t have been able to enjoy such beautiful scenery now.
There’s something about the sun’s rays hitting the earth at sunrise, after breaking through fluffy clouds, thousands of feet above the earth’s surface.
As I was up there, I even forgot the danger of it all. Sure, I could see the curvature of the earth with nothing underneath me, but I was not in the HABIT of worrying about these things before, and so I forgot to do it now.
Lesson Summary:
- Procrastinate fear. Just like you do everything else, Jeez. If you’re not in the situation right now, you can let go of it.
- If you are heading towards doing something scary, keep reminding yourself that you’ve done the things you’re doing before. Keep calm and… I’ve done this before!
I don’t mean to patronize you. I know you’ve all done lots of scary things before, sometimes MUCH, MUCH scarier. I know you already have ways of dealing with fear. I just hope you can add these to your arsenal!
That’s it. Hope you got something out of it and, as always, have a nice day!