i find it amazing all my warrior brothers ignored the fact that obama tried SEVERAL times to get them job benefits throughout his last term and that their own republican party denied the soldiers of said benefits. FOX news didnt really report that did they? to my warriors: this republican party is shaking your hand with one hand and stabbing you in the back with the other. look it up. Job Act Corps was gonna give vets and their families more money especially for guys coming out of the military through VA. repubs killed the bill last september. educate yourselves gents.

 republicans also killed a veteran’s cost of living increase bill. im not the presidents biggest fan but i know the facts and the facts that FOX news constantly fails to report are pretty gnarly. i love my brothers and i want them taken care of, not just someone to pretend they’re taking care of them.

where did all my physical motivation go? i look and feel like shit all the time. im not gonna look better by doing nothing. i bet if my schedule was open i still wouldnt work out… its probably because i worked out every day for 2 years and my results were so minimal that i subconsciously dont find it worthy of my time… i am in the worst shape of my life and i need to find some fire starting tools so i can light the fire under my ass and get moving again. 

Could we still get the jump of our lives, and feel truly alive, even if we knew each jump was perfectly safe? “Would it be a game worth playing at all if the outcome was certain?” (Andreas Fransson, ‘Tempting Fear’)… The answer is of course no. So why do it then? what are we truly searching for? are we really seeking to find our limits which essentially means death? the answer to the latter is also no. In my (some would say full) 22 years of life, i have stumbled upon life’s ultimate paradox. The closer you are to death, the more alive you feel. 

   You see, we has humans, always dwell, and live in the past and future. we get so caught up in “what could have been” and “what will be,” that we miss the “now.”  When we are faced with real danger, whether we’re jumping out of planes, backcountry skiing, downhill mountain biking or whatever else, we are faced with potential death at any particular moment. It is during these experiences that we feel time is slowed. I believe this phenomena is caused by us truly living in the present. When i am falling out of the sky at 120 miles per hour, that 60 seconds or so feels like hours. This is because i know that in a few seconds, i could very well be killed. that there are a myriad of scenarios that can occur in the next few seconds that can end my life. I am not thinking about yesterday, or what im going to do to prepare for that meeting next week. i am truly appreciating every second of that event, for i know they could be my last. 

   Many people say us adrenaline junkies have a chemical imbalance that allows us not to fear. My response to those people is, its not that we are not afraid of death, its just that we simply have a greater fear… I fear more than anything else, not of death, but not living my life to the fullest possible limit.

   Fear is the essential ingredient for appreciating the “now.” Its what helps us recognize danger and death. It is because of fear, we feel alive. without fear, we dont get our fix. we dont get that time of peaceful appreciation of life. without fear, there is no motivation to do great things. 

   So for those people who think we have a death wish, and that we are striving to find our limits which may translate to be that terminal fall, they have it all wrong. to die, is to lose. We want to win. and to win in life means you have to be faced with, and overcome a problem. to win, you have to face death and come out unharmed. For at the end of that experience, you are truly appreciative of how precious life is, and what it means to live in the moment. And thats what it is.  thats what keeps us making those leaps of faith. this is why we shall continue to strive to find our limits as creatures of flight, and this is why we will continue to die trying to find those limits. 

This is Why We Jump.