skydiving... anyone?

so how does it feel to jump off a plane @ 13,000 ft, freefalling until you hit 5,000 ft, and then parachuting your way down to the ground? nothing really. because the fear and anxiety is almost gone the moment you float in the air with your tandem instructor strapped behind you. except of course that rush of wind blowing to your face making your cheeks flap like pancakes. and you can't even scream because the air just gets sucked into your body. you just float up there, trying to remember the instructions given to you before you took off - spread your arms high, arch your body, legs wide apart, and enjoy the sensation. that's freefalling 101, and it lasts about a minute or so. then the parachute deploys and it's another story. this time you enjoy the scenery below while your instructor teaches you to control the descent by yanking the chute cord left and right. landing was relatively easy, and after your instructor congratulates you for completing your first dive, you go back to the hangar area, get a copy of the skydiving certificate, and off you go - the much anticipated skydiving over.

ok, now the details. the whole experience lasted for about 20 minutes, not including the paperworks and anxiety-filled waiting time, which was really the killer. while waiting, i watched the others ahead of me fall from the sky like specks and then blossom like flowers when their parachutes opened. when they landed i told myself, that looks easy (still trying to convince myself not to back out hehehe). the moment i had my safety chute on (or whatever that thing they put on your back), there was no turning back. there were seven of us in our batch, all first-timers but two. i started my gps/timer when the plane took off, and turned it off when we landed - so that's the 20 minute experience. and of that 20 minutes or so, about 15 minutes was for the time the plane was going up to that diving altitude, and the rest was for the actual freefall/skydive. pretty short eh. but that 15 minutes, that so-short-time, was filled with stomach-turning nervousness. and looking around, i could sense the same from the others. we were all butt-seated on the bare plane called the skyvan (similar to a cargo plane with a tailgate opening), and when the target altitude was reached, we stood up, the door opened, and one by one we jumped. and when i jumped, it was just me and my instructor (and basically my life depended on him at that point on). but there was no (more) fear, no (more) nervousness, just freefalling. and then that short tug upwards when the parachute opened. freefalling was over.