I was looking over my old photos the other day and found this one! Me skydiving in New Zealand when I was 19 years old!
That was by far the most amazing and craziest thing I’ve ever done!! What an adrenalin rush! 5,000 feet free-falling and 5,000 feet with the parachute. OMG! The feeling of just plummeting through the sky is just beyond words!
I just remember the whoosh sound as I fell. It was so loud. I screamed, laughed and screamed some more as I plunged through the sky. I remember that, 2 seconds after that photo was taken, the instructor nudged me off the plane! In my panic, I forgot to spread my arms out so we did about 3 somersaults before he finally managed to get me to open my arms! It probably only took about 30 seconds or so to fall 5,000 feet, but the feeling… just WOW!
Then when the parachute came up everything was suddenly so quiet. We drifted peacefully through the sky, passing through clouds and looking at the world below us… magical.
I think I stayed on a high for a week after that – my face hurt from grinning so much! It was so exhilarating.
I have to admit that I almost didn’t do the jump. I really tried to get out of it because I was so terrified, but my sister, Christine, who I was travelling with, wouldn’t hear of it 🙂 We had actually paid for the skydiving in Auckland when we arrived before starting on our Kiwi Experience tour around the North Island. So it was only about a week later that we reached the skydiving place!! And when I got there and saw others plummeting through the sky, I remember thinking, NO WAY! NOT A CHANCE! It didn’t look at all like fun any more. But my sister refused to let me back out, so I ended up getting into the plane with my instructor stuck to my back, my heart racing, and jumping out of it – and I’m so grateful to her for making me push my limits and try something wild.
Now that I look back, I wish I had done more daring stuff when I was younger, that I had been less scared of trying things that seemed frightening – and by that I don’t mean illegal things 🙂 – I just mean stuff like white water rafting, surfing, abseiling, canyoning…
And you, what’s the craziest adrenalin-boosting thing you’ve ever done?
Hi Everyone!
If we were having coffee I would tell you that after suffering with anxiety for years, thus including anxiety in my second book, Stuck with Me, I’m relieved to say that I’m much, much better now and that I managed to go to Europe for 3 weeks, get on the plane and do everything else without once feeling anxious – which I couldn’t believe. It was AMAZING. But this year, my 13-year-old son began suffering from anxiety and panic attacks and its heart breaking to see. I feel so powerless because I know exactly what he’s going through, how awful and hard it is to cope with it and there’s NOTHING I can do to make it go away. I talk him through it and it does soothe him a little knowing that I went through the same thing and understand what he’s feeling, but it still doesn’t make it stop. The hardest thing is not being able to make it go away for him… I would take my anxiety back in a heartbeat if it meant his would disappear… He’s only 13 years old. The worst thing with anxiety is that you’re the only one who can fight it – no one can do it for you. It’s all in your mind and you’re the only person who can get in there and stop it from taking over your life. You are the only one who can put the advice people give you into practice and use the methods there are to relax and calm down. I wish that I could just hop into his head and do it for him – but I can’t. I can only hope and pray that with time he’ll learn how to cope like I did so that he can lead a normal-ish life and start doing all the things he’s always loved doing again and that he can’t anymore. He is slowly getting better with the medication and cognitive therapy sessions thank goodness and we can only hope that it continues on like this. Do any of your children have anxiety or are depressed? I’d love to hear from you as it really helps to know that we’re not alone… If you have any tips that could help too, that would be awesome.
If we were having coffee, I would tell you that I’ve become a Netflix series junkie! 😊 Yep, I’ve gone through so many series and recently suddenly developed a weird fascination for hospital/medical series! So bizarre. I just finished watching the 4 seasons of The Night Shift and then moved onto Emily Owens M.D. I’m so disappointed that there’s only 1 season of Emily Owens as I really enjoyed that. It’s a nice mixture of cute doctors in scrubs, humour, romance and… surgical procedures 😊 (ok so I’m not a huge fan of the cutting bodies part, but the rest is great). So now I’m at a loss as to what to watch. Any suggestions other than Vampire Diaries, Grey’s Anatomy, Gossip Girl, Gilmore Girls, Life Unexpected, Suits and New Girl??
It was cute too because my daughter left a letter on the wall – she’s 15 years old and experiencing her first love. So sweet. How about you? What’s the city you find the most romantic and why?
And before I go, I just thought I’d tell you that I’ve finally started writing again. I stopped after the release of ‘Stuck with Me’ for various reasons…
I’m still fine tuning the details but I’m just enjoying getting lost in my imaginative world again.
If you haven’t read Stuck with Me yet, please give it a try. It’s funny and romantic but also deals with deeper issues like anxiety, relationships, family, trust and happiness – and not to forget that it set in Mauritius and includes a lot of wonderful quirky Mauritian scenes, and the last part is in Perth which also rocks.
Cassandra Piat 