Yes, this picture is of me sky diving. I decided, when I was twenty, to jump because I wanted to know what it was like to fall through the air.

It was the most frightening experience of my life.

First I had to swing my legs outside the door of an in-flight airplane. Then, I had to take my hand and pull myself up to walk along the strut outside the door of a moving airplane. It was ever so windy and took every ounce of my strength to do it.

I felt like I was climbing Mount Everest in the clouds in a wind storm, all for the words from the jump master who said ” OK- let go”.

And I did- as insane as it felt in that moment and with a picture to prove it-I did just simply let go.

I must admit that as I was swinging my legs out of the plane, all I could think was “there really IS a reason they make you sign your life away when you sign up to sky dive because if you are foolish enough to risk death, well, then it’s probably because it might just happen…” For a few moments there- right at the end- I truly thought that I had gone insane and I WAS going to die. How foolish could I be. What WAS I thinking?

But in the very next moment, right after I let go and jumped off my own “cliff”, or in this case out of a plane, I realized what it means to get to the other side.

All I could hear was the rush of wind and total stillness in the air. As I peered below, legs swinging in the breeze, the ground looked like a giant puzzle with all of the parcels of land locked together, in place, making my own internal puzzle feel complete.

I felt nothing but a rush of freedom. I twirled for what seemed like endless time- eternity in a moment- by tugging on the chord of my parachute, which gave me the ability to steer just like behind the wheel of a car. First one, two, then three donuts in the air, what a freedom I never knew, and I giggled with glee.

Freedom is exhilarating. Risk for it. Entrepreneur with it. It is worth a few moments of terror for the ride.