Fear Turns To Pride In A Parental Moment

[Wheels Rollin']

Like many parents, I suppose, my wife and I have always encouraged our only-child daughter to seize all the opportunities life provides, with the realistic belief they may not present themselves a second time… Better to have a memory of something than harboring a ‘nothingness’ feeling of regret, we’ve always told her… Of course, the fact we… uh… think we’ve done a decent job of raising her factors into this as well, our efforts to ‘walk-the-walk-an’-talk-the-talk’ as consistent throughout her days growing up with us as we could make them… Anyway, we think she’s made good choices in her life, assessing risks and weighing them with the expected outcomes | rewards… Now 21 and just getting ready to enter her final year of college at an out-of-state school, we’re sure she’s undertaken things never mentioned to us, and as a part of growing up, I’d be willing to bet there’s no one who hasn’t lived the same way to varying extents in their youth -- especially testing limits under the ever-watchful eyes of a parent or guardian…

 

All this leads me to a call we received from our daughter yesterday while I was still at work…

 

Arriving home at the end of an unusually long and tiring day, I was immediately greeted by my wife's somewhat exasperated ‘… You’ll n-e-v-e-r guess what your daughter did today…’ statement while walking into the kitchen from the garage, our daughter’s voice at the other end of the phone line during their conversation, she continued, uncharacteristically giddy, partially with delight and partially with excitement, she believed, her words breathlessly strung together without any spacing… When I asked about the cause of the joyous occasion when the opportunity to do so presented itself, my wife simply blurted out ‘… Your daughter… well… she parachuted out of a p-e-r-f-e-c-t-l-y g-o-o-d airplane today -- an’ thank goodness, she lived to tell me about it!’

 

<>

 

I smiled and nodded knowingly -- a smile conveying a real and genuine happiness for her and a sense of overwhelming relief she’d returned to earth in just the 'in-one-piece' manner she’d envisioned… The knowing part o' that? Hearing of our daughter’s ‘great adventure’ surfaced a memory of my own… Ya’ see, I’d done the same thing myself at just about her age -- 100 times over the course of a couple of years while in school, as a matter of fact -- though in my instance, I never did tell my parents about it… Even to this day, they do not know, a fact about which I’m not proud nor ashamed… Why no telling? Well, on jump 99, my canopy became entangled in several of my suspension lines, the net effect causing me some… uh… well… let’s just say I had some ‘sure-got-my-hands-full’ challenges during that fateful descent… The canopy above me failed to fully deploy, and in spite of my repeated and increasingly urgent efforts to untangle the lines, I found myself looking down at an earth’s surface coming at me more quickly than I’d planned… As good fortune would have it (an’ perhaps some unconscious planning), though, we were jumping in a rural area littered with farm fields in the midst of a mid-season harvest… That day, my innate ‘survival mode’ kicked in, and I was, in all likelihood, spared an untimely demise by a blessedly-placed haystack towards which I was inexplicably able to steer myself and my crippled chute… I walked away with a bruise or two and nothing else, the harrowing event ending in a decidedly dramatic, but injury-free manner…

 

<>

 

As my wife and I conversed, that aged and repressed memory now freshened and firmly anchored in my mind, additional details surfaced about our daughter’s ‘I-seized-the-opportunity’ event… It occurred somewhere in southern California near the Children’s Camp where she’s been working this Summer, I learned… She’d attended a several hour’s long ground school and tandem-jumped afterwards with an experienced instructor… A friend of hers who’d jumped before suggested it as a way to make the Summer truly memorable… Knowing our daughter as she did, she thought it would be something she’d enjoy… No word on whether photos exist of the occasion -- I’ll be truly disappointed if there aren’t…

 

Anyway, from the sounds of it, she went about it in what I think was the proper way -- risk assessment, planning, preparation, training, and flawless execution, though she may not have thought of it in that way <>… And for that, I’m r-e-a-l-l-y pleased and excited for her…

 

Being away all Summer and up to her neck in position responsibilities as she’s been, we really haven’t been able to speak as frequently as we normally do, the occasional text messages sorely lacking in a sense of real connection and the warmth that brings to relationships, so I’ll have to… well… just ‘cool my jets’ for awhile until I can hear it all in full-color detail… She returns home in just a couple of weeks -- an’ I can’t wait to see her again an' to hold her… Some time afterwards -- probably in September as it looks at the moment -- when she’s settled into her new semester and the new routine it’s created, I’m planning to take a ride up to see her… An’ then, over dinner and maybe even a glass of wine or two, I’ll ask her to give me all the spare-no-details of her jump… Won’t she be surprised to discover we have something unexpected in common when I share my experience with her <>… Ahhh… Another special father-daughter moment created… As time goes on, they become harder to create, so I’m going to savor this one for all it’s worth…

 

EPILOGUE:

Not wishing to have the ‘less-than-perfect’ events of number 99 cloud my experience with parachuting, I did what many would say is the best thing to do when faced with an outcome that… well… didn’t quite go as planned -- I hitched a ride back to the airport, donned another chute, and went right back up into the heavens to... well... test my resolve and prove to myself I could overcome the fear that had slowly crept into me… Less than an hour after returning to the airport, I was safely back on solid ground, a sense of gratefulness engulfing me… I concluded my jumping days with an even 100 to my credit… Walking to my car afterwards and driving back to the barracks, I remember having a strong sense of ‘been-there-done-that’ waltzing through my mind as I consciously x'd a box on some long-forgotten checklist and closed out a chapter of my life, at the same time contemplating others… I never jumped again -- and I don’t have an interest in doing so again; yet, were my daughter to ask, I would jump with her -- once, though, and no more…

 

~ Bill

 

[BeniciaRT_GT]

Awesome write Bill,

 

The rewards I will miss in life (no kids) from weighing the risks/benefits with an Ex-wife were still the right choice, but boy I envy you!!!

 

What a great job you did on this little story. I really felt like I was there in your head!

 

And congrats on how your daughter turned out!!!

[Ken H.]

Great story Bill, seems like you ALL done good.

 

I've always enjoyed your writing talents and style, and it seems you weren't around here for awhile. Glad to see / read you're back!

 

Cheers!

[Huzband]

That's just awesome, Bill. A great story well told.

 

If Jan reads this, I think he'll have a clear understanding of what having children is all about.

 

Oh, yeah. When you have that final jump with her, make sure a camera is present. We're a visual bunch, you know.