51. Summer 2018- Skydive Spaceland

I figured it was probably time to post about Summer 2018 before Summer 2019 starts soon...it has been on my to-do list for about 6 months now! Life has been crazy busy, but a good busy where I feel super passionate and driven each day. Anyways, here it is, thank you all who were a part of it, here in Texas & supporting from afar, especially my family, especially my sister.

I could easily write a post for everything involved with summer 2018: AFF students, gypsy living situations, tandem customers for whom I shot video, Spaceland staff, daily dropzone happenings, life lessons, love, friendship, fears, reward, health, people. This coming summer, now more settled here, I want to incorporate stories of each into my posts. I previously did a 'Spaceland Start post March- May' so I'm picking up from there. Here it is summarized from 2018:

Overall June- October-ish (end of main season) was GOOD. It was working HARD every single day- AFF, video, working out, eating healthy, saving money. I chose to do almost all work jumps, putting fun jumping aside- to push myself to work hard, buy a new rig and to pay off bills from when I was broken in FL. A lot of days were 110 degrees + doing 10+ jumps a day- my favorite because of the challenge. Many of these AFF and video jumps were incredibly memorable- the students, my co-workers, those TX skies. I wanted to be the very best I could be at my work and feel that I accomplished the most I could in that season.

Many lessons were learned as I adjusted to working full-time at a dropzone instead of just fun jumping. It's pretty different work from sitting in an office all day as a Buyer ; ) Luckily, overall, I had a very supportive staff last summer. Students fly in from all over the world to learn at Skydive Spaceland Houston since we are the biggest learning facility in the U.S. I tried to learn something from everyone since there is so much talent on the staff.

Personally, the biggest lesson in these summer months was the importance of being centered, of being anchored, inside myself always, no matter the situation: through the most challenging AFF students, staff situations, living situations, breakups, homesick days, 12 jump days to the 0 jump days, health situations, all highs and lows of skydiving. Arriving at Spaceland, after being broken in FL, made me on a f*cking MISSION from day 1 in TX...one for which I still feel so heated each day. Literally all I cared about was my flying, work, and working out to get my strongest. I didn't know my next step after my summer in TX but my gut feelings was that my health was more important than ever...which proved true.

I am GRATEFUL for the 600+ jumps of the season, zero injuries.

The gypsy living situations where there are plenty of stories from each one:

1.) March-July was in a "private" guest house on this beautiful ranch 5 acre "yoga" ranch 4 miles to the dropzone- found on Airbnb. BEAUTIFUL...and also a crazy, crazy Chinese lady who after 4 months made it clear it was time to move on. Funny..now!

2.) July in-between places: a 100 acre true Texas ranch about 20 minutes from the DZ in a hunting lodge. A skydiving friend who takes of the ranch generously gave me a room while I found my next place. I learned a lot about alligators, hog hunting and everything Texas ranch.

3.) July- October (then back for January)- an Airbnb house 15 minutes from the DZ in the closest town. It was with two gay men in a new build house right on a golf course. They truly made it home for me and was what ultimately made me convinced Houston could feel like a home.

Both #1 & #3 I price negotiated to $550 a month with no lease; #2 was free. I definitely had some luck with these places and it kept the gypsy life adventure stories going.

I love these pictures, there's good stories behind each of them. Much love ya'll.

After a student did really well on their AFF jump:

I absolutely love seeing the happiness after people jump for their first time:

This was one of my most memorable jumps shooting video. This man could not move from the waist down. My friend Tony specializes in this type of tandem jumps and he successfully took him for a tandem. Other instructors, DQ and Zac, came to help him out the plane and then fly with us. It was thrilling to be part of someone's huge flying moment when they can't walk.

Here is FaceTiming with my sister, Carly. She is my biggest support and has been through it all with me, all while on her own adventure through Germany, Washington DC, Costa Rica, NH, Africa and now London. Here I was laying in the grass at the DZ. TE AMO MI HERMANA ;)

A great Spaceland tradition is taking pictures when anyone who gets a new license or rating. Here is Jeff, who I now coach at iFLY:

A day after jumping with the beautiful TX sky:

My student who flew in with her husband from Bermuda. She was a JOY to work with and now comes back a couple times a year:

One of my few, much needed, days off, enjoying Galveston:

My new canopy of the season- I tried a few canopies, one severely hurting my neck. I was relieved to find this used Crossfire 99 which I'm still jumping now:

Seaside, TX:

A weekday when there were no work jumps in the morning:

To this day I've never been pied for anything- I've always stayed quiet about those #s ... but when pieing someone else, I ended up with most of it on my face. For non-skydivers this happens for 100 jumps, 1000 jumps etc.

This was that HUGE Texas ranch that I lived on for a week. It was wild- nothing like I've ever seen. On this run, I was mostly motivated to sprint from the most insane mosquitos I've ever seen- while also trying to take in the peacefulness:

Spaceland holds a lot of events- this weekend it was 20-way jumps. Usually I'm working for these events, but this Sunday was slow with work so I joined the women's 20-way. Usually I'm choosing to free-fly but it was fun to do a some big belly formation jumps. This was an all women 20-way- we did it in just 2 jumps- yeah ladies!

AFF student, Larissa, with whom I did all A license jumps- now she works at Spaceland in Manifest:

This was after the most challenging AFF jump I had this summer. We do single instructor jumps for the whole student program- for all jumps, we instructors are solely responsible. It is also my most proud AFF jump for how I kept him safe. He now has is A license, YEAH!

Another amazing AFF student, Tara, who absolutely loved jumping from day 1:

This summer I started the Isogenix lifestyle which helped so much with getting stronger:

Since I was so focused on health and not spending money, I think this was my only night out in Houston this whole summer, to say goodbye to our friend Jason:

As a videographer, I'm usually the one taking pictures of tandem customers here. My AFF student told me I deserved a picture here haha!

A good reminder:

#3 living situation with the two men- beautiful mornings and sunsets on their porch:

DF1 Daniel, we ended up doing all A-license jumps together. This morning he rode his motorcycle 120 mph to the dz- while I don't encourage this :P, it made him super good with adrenaline and definitely the easiest student of the summer:

So, TX does have a nice shoreline on the gulf- I disagree with anyone who says otherwise! This is Galveston- it's awesome to go from Texas ranches to the water within 25 minutes- always reminds me of home in SD.

My friends Rob and Felicia were always incredibly welcoming since the day I arrived- always offering their home and food. They seemed to understand me not frequently hanging out at the DZ which meant a lot- I always love the time we do get together. This was a night they invited a few of us who were new to Houston for a London Roast:

In skydiving clothes 99.9% of the time here, getting dressed up this night out felt really good:

My AFF student, the one and only Jenny! Each jump she loved to surprise me with a different face mask. It was hilarious to see her in the sky with this stuff:

This was a gym room in the Pearland Airbnb. Every morning before jumping, often evenings too, I would push myself to do weight training through BeachBody. The workouts are HARD -this morning I remember being like hey, this is working:

A DF1, with a story outside of actual skydiving that I will exclude here- but to note it because I'll always remember it as pushing me in a hard way to grow more as an instructor. I did my best to support her and she now has her A license:

DF1 Chris. I really appreciated him because he admitted was not good with adrenaline and not a natural. He also appreciated our work as instructors and showed it. We worked hard together for that successful A-license:

My ritual that started last summer: to keep my phone off until I have a cup of coffee and read the daily passage of this amazing book:

The first time that the The Ratings Center asked me to do coach evaluation jumps. My friend Felicia, to my right here, passed her coach jumps with me! Also, with this coach course, my 'big bro' Chris Fudala got his Coach Examiner rating. Proud of you all!

My student doing level 3 who is deaf. This meant no airplane conversations before jumping, no radio for canopy- just paddles to help her directionally. Level 3 is where I release the student to fly by themselves- often the most challenging level for students. No exaggeration, despite her being deaf, it was by far the best level 3 I have seen. GO GIRL!

This is the very first house I stayed at when arriving in Houston. Months later, pictured here, I was house sitting in the same neighborhood. A different owner by then, I took a run back there- realizing how much better I felt than when first arriving here.

A-license photo with Cameron, a friend who later on ended up going through FITP with my at iFLY. He's my little bro of TX who continually has my back: