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I took a flying leap

Notre Dame Magazine | Autumn 2013

I jumped out of a plane. Then I wrote about it. The beginning:

Way up there, in the first weightless moments of free fall at 10,500 feet, the cold atmosphere is silent.

There are only wisps of sound: of thudding heartbeat, of nylon jumpsuit against parachute container, of clinking metal fasteners, of the plane’s droning engine fading into nothingness above. An island of whispers through a vast stillness.

Gravity vanishes. It is still there, of course, tugging downward, but its apparent absence is palpable in sudden weightlessness. Stomach flutters upward. Nerves spark with energy. Brain struggles — and fails — to comprehend it. To process it. Total free fall.

Click here to read the full story at Notre Dame Magazine.