When you push deadline a few times, or are late turning in your expenses, or regularly question changes made to your copy, you start to wonder what your editors think of you.
I got my answer to that Thursday, when one of them volunteered me to jump out of an airplane at 13,000 feet.
I felt like a blunt email, or maybe a couple bullet points in my review would have sufficed in getting the point across. But things like that don't get web clicks, so here I was.
The assignment was to drive to Skydive Kapowsin in Shelton on Friday, where I'd meet Federal Way native John Emmett, a 26-year-old who is less than a month away from participating in the Special Olympics USA Games in Seattle. Emmett is a soccer player with a learning disability who, much to his surprise, was invited to go skydiving for the first time in his life.
All smiles while putting his jump suit on, Emmett wasn't exposing his pearly whites while sitting more than two miles above the ground.
"I'm really nervous!" he told Luke Aikins, the jumper attached to him for the tandem dive.
"That's a good thing!" Aikins replied.
If Aikins' name sounds familiar it's because he's racked his nerves a few times himself. In 2016, the Puyallup native jumped 25,000 feet into a net without a device known as a "parachute."
Safe to say the guy has a brass pair of you know whats. Fortunately for Emmett, he also has a golden heart.
Last year, the Special Olympics asked Aikins if he would like to be an ambassador for this year's games. Aikins replied "yes" with terminal-velocity speed.
One of his first duties was to ride alongside Special Olympics sponsors on Seattle's Great Wheel. Problem was, few of the sponsors had any clue who he was.
It's hard to compete when you see Steve Largent to your left and Gary Payton to your right. "I'm the guy who jumped into the net," jogged a few folks' memories, but it wasn't quite on par with "I D'd up Michael Jordan."
So Aikins thought about opportunities he could offer one of this year's athletes that no one else could. The answer was easy _ chuck one of them out of a plane.
All kidding aside, skydiving is extremely safe. The odds of one dying in a car crash on the way to the jump site are far greater than dying during the actual dive. Still, that doesn't stop your survival instinct from screaming at you with a megaphone as you walk toward the open door of the plane.
I can't speak for everyone, but my head gets a little cluttered while falling at 120 mph. Just before the jump, my tandem partner, Keri Farrington, told me to stick my arms out when she tapped my shoulder, but 10 seconds into the jump I was thinking "Why is this woman tapping me?!?!"
I eventually figured it out and soaked up the thrill of the 60-second free fall. After that, roller coasters are going to feel like light-rail rides to me. It might seem like the height of stupidity to jump from such a height, but I can assure you that you'll treasure the experience if you ever get the chance.
The post-dive grin on Emmett's face was proof.
Emmett's parents split at a young age and later turned him over to his grandmother to raise him. His friend/unofficial brother Josh Strickland said it was a traumatic few years for John before reaching adulthood.
But he found solace in soccer, became a Special Olympian and is now married with kids. It's been a life of ups and downs _ although none as extreme as the ones he experienced Friday.
"That was amazing," Emmett said.
If you want a bottomless glass of a feel-good moments, the Special Olympics always deliver. They are teeming with people like Aikins, who was beaming just as bright as Emmett was Friday.
As for me? Well, after texting my mom that I was still alive, I headed back to the office to return a camera and do my expenses. And about 15 minutes after I arrived, my boss walked by and asked me how it went.
"Awesome," I said.
"Great," he replied. "Can you have the column in by 4 tomorrow?"
Absolutely. And feel free to make any changes you'd like.
