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Ad space is limited and is taken on a first-come, first-serve basis. Contact the Business Manager at business@ technewsiit.com for more information. LOCAL 8' NATIONAL ADVERTISERS To place an ad, contact us via email at business@technewsiit.com. ILLINOIS INSTITUTEVI/ OF TECHNOLOGY opinion@technewsiit.com TechNews | Tuesday, October 16, 2012 13,500 feet above Earth: Skydiving Chicago By Shreeyeh Rajan COPY EDITOR One of the instructors slid the flight door up. The flight started getting cooler. As everyone evacuated from the flight, my heart started racing; being second to last didn’t make it better. As an llT student would say it, the number of people jumping before me was directly proportional to the number of butterflies in my stomach. We all knelt down, and my tandem instructor kept telling me to move forward. I was next in line. I saw the guy in front of me jump, spin in mideair and start freeefalling. That’s when I thought, “What did I get myself into?" At the beginning of the semester, I found out that I won a skydiving ticket in the lottery conducted by Union Board. A standard $219 first tandem ticket for $90 because I’m an HT student? Oh, yeahl So, I get the ticket. What’s next? Approval from my parents and the $90. When I told them earlier about my interest in skydiving, they were fine with it. When I told them I won the ticket, hell broke loose. Family members asked me questions like “Didn’t you go to college to study?" or “You’re paying that much money to jump out of a plane?" and even “Who is that guy who’s going to attached to you while you jump?" Afe ter a lot of persuasion, they were okay with it. I remember my Mom telling me to “be safe" and I replied sarcastically, “Yeah Mom, I’ll be safe when I jump out of the plane." She didn’t find it quite as funny as I did, though. Back to my first tandem jump scene, I’m kneeling with my tandem instructor, Jere emy, attached to me. He told me about five times what to do when I’m in mideair, and I’m thinking of how am I going to remember eve erything. So, I look down and the camera guy jumps in front of me and holds on to the flight door to record my jump. With wind blowing by at approximately 120 mph, 1 jump. I’m fly, ing 13,500 feet high and it was the best feeling everl l accidently opened my mouth dure ing before the jump, so it was pretty hard to close it while in freefall. Jeremy opened up the parachute pulled up the parachute between 5,000 and 6,000 feet ( I forgot to open it; I was having too much funl) and then we were fall, ing at a slower pace. Jeremy spun me around thrice on the left and then I told him I wanted to do the same on the other side. So, we did. We landed safely, since I remembered not to land on my feet. Honestly, this was one of the best experiences everl After successfully flying and falling, I feel like I can do absolutely anything else. CS 351 next semester? Bring it onl Images by Shreeyeh Rajan