The sun glints brightly outside the hard metal plane. The light flicks to red, as a chorus of “door” is yelled out through the plane. I turn away from the excited tandem student beside me and push up the plane door. I peek out and see the dropzone far below like a tiny piece of a lego village. The lake in front of me sparkles like a jewel, as the wind rushes across my face. The light turns green and I take the hand on my left. Our hands swing back and forth; “Ready, set, go” and we tip forward in unison. I smile to myself as we do three front loops before stopping on our bellies.
What a great community it is. I feel like I can attribute the fact that I got my ‘A’ relatively fast to all the amazing people in the sport. People who took huge amounts of time out of their days to teach me to pack and later review it with me. Over and over again….And the many pieces of advice I got on how to make a maneuver. And when I struggled to complete it, to those that were willing to take me through it on the ground several times. The whole community is simply amazing.
I think I am beginning to understand the draw. It is not just the skydiving, but the awesome people. It’s 
We reach our bellies, face-off and begin our pre-planned pattern. Star, open accordion, open accordion, side-body, orbit to star. It sounds simple, but certainly is not easy. A glance at my left wrist shows that pull time is coming. I turn away and begin tracking — the lego pieces below are looking bigger. I stop my forward motion and with one last glance at my altimeter, I give a final check for any other skydivers, and pull out my pilot chute. I prepare for the familiar upwards jerk and it comes in a whoosh, as the parachute unfolds above me. For a brief second the wind rushes noisily past then I emerge under canopy in the peaceful blue sky with fluffy white clouds above.
Another awesome skydive is over.