52. Officially an iFLY Instructor- The Start!

woodburyroland
Jun 24, 2019
6 min read

iFLY...in yet another crazy journey, I officially became an instructor!! Through literal blood, sweat and tears in the training and initial months, I sit here 9 months into it all. It's been a wild ride and another huge chapter of challenge, adjustment, learning. The endless growing pains make me so grateful for where I am now. I also know there is still a lot of growth ahead but now am able to reflect on the beginning of it all.

All of last summer I had no idea what would be next after the summer at Spaceland. If you've been following along, I came to Texas what seemed completely randomly, ended up in Houston even more randomly, with the sole desire to push myself hard working in skydiving. Sitting here writing, on a rare day, I am realizing just how much that chapter in Zephyrhills with a broken wrist lit a fire inside me to fight HARD relentlessly in all of this- it made me obsessed with these goals. Last summer my gut feeling knew I needed to train my body hard for the next chapter and get my very healthiest. This has always been a focus but body strength and resilience became the goal last summer.

Every single day for the past 1.5 years it has been a devotion to flying and health.

Obsessed with the body flight part of skydiving, I originally talked to iFLY May 2018 but it was clear that Spaceland needed to be the whole focus last summer. I then relentlessly reached out to iFLY August 2018 as I looked ahead at the winter and my next goals. I enjoyed the videographer and AFF instructor part of skydiving but was craving pushing my body to the maximum with the flight part. In October 2018 iFLY officially hired me as an instructor, with the warning of how hard the pass/fail training, FITP, would be.

Really the only word I can think of is obsessed- obsessed with the challenge of this, obsessed with wanting to be an instructor, and obsessed with pushing my body to its max.

November 11, 2018 I started the training, overnight 12 month long training. I've done a lot of hard things in my life but this was definitely one of the hardest. I'm a go to bed at 10pm, need 8 hours of sleep, crave sunlight kind of girl. The overnight part of the training was definitely the hardest part- it threw my body into one of the worst feelings. The physical and emotional part of the training was also incredibly challenging- preparing us for the worst situations in the tunnel. I'm sure I looked like a crazy person 5 am, 6 am, okay all of the AM hours of those trainings! It was wild driving home at 9 am then sleeping until 4PM. I put aluminum foil over my bedroom windows to block out sunlight but nothing really helped the abnormality of those hours. A big thank you to my closest people for sticking with me that month:

I lucked out with the very best trainer, Benji McAndrews from Florida, pictured above. Jed Lloyd was the assistant trainer who was also excellent. I am also grateful for the other 4 people going through the training- especially the other girl Zori who has now become one of my favorites. Guess what, It IS possible to pass this training as a female- despite what so many people are daring enough to say to our faces (ask me about this in person). Also note it takes an extra power & dedication to pass as a female. I'd love to see any guy try to do that training with excruciating period cramps at 4 am in the morning;) Our bodies are smaller and built differently but when we learn the technique of it we are unstoppable. (Benji: "technique, side body, technique, SIDE BODY, TECHNIQUE!!)

Benji has this superpower of pushing us to our maximum yet supporting us the entire way. Benji had to go home for family commitments after 3 weeks, meaning examiner Chris Renolds came into do our tests. I am forever grateful to have receive world class training from iFLY & the IBA.

Early December I officially PASSED the training. It was surreal feeling for it to be over. That month I had put everything else in life on hold and in this surreal overnight world. HUGE respect shoutout to anyone who has an overnight work schedule. There are days now when I still think my body is recovering from that!

The first months adjusting to work as an instructor also challenged me more than I ever imagined. Looking back, it was just as I had gotten comfortable as a skydiving instructor at Spaceland that I then jumped into the iFLY training. I am extremely grateful for my life course here in Texas but also am realizing how much constant re-adustment, change, challenge etc. I threw myself into this past year 18 months. As soon as I got through the iFLY training in December, I jumped back into trying to balance working at Spaceland weekend days and iFLY weekend nights. More on that in a future post.

Hours before FITP started, I got in a car accident where my car was totaled. Around the same time my apartment Airbnb situation got dangerous, making it an obvious that after 2 years of gyps life, it was definitely time to get my own apartment. (one blog post in the future will be of all my gypsy living situations!) There I was sorting through a new job, re-establishing a previous job, car searching, apartment searching (looked at 25+) recovering from the training health wise, and recovering again financially.

Now in late June, I am just finally getting used to balancing it all- physically, emotionally, life balance wise.

I am now very ready to just be present in the routine I've created of iFLY 2 weekdays, Spaceland weekend days, iFLY weekend nights, a day or so of coaching & extra flying, and now always at least one total self-care day each week. I am still obsessed with flying, still obsessed with my health but also now obsessed with balance of it all. That endless to-do list is finally done and I feel like I can enjoy my days off. The comfort of my yoga studio, spiritual center Mahikari, running bayou trail, acupuncturist, apartment nestled in the trees and favorite Whole Foods have become important parts of life. I'm incredibly grateful for what both iFLY and Spaceland have given my life, how my body has persevered and the journey of it all.

THANK YOU to my family, true friends, and God for the endless support. Much love, more than ever!

Flying my Dad! He did great! He used to teach me to fly his airplanes, now it is my turn:

This picture of my sister and me has been all over the world with me in my gear bag. Last summer it was in my Spaceland locker and now it's officially here in my iFLY locker:

OFFICIAL:

Even more official :P ...

Peace out "Black Beauty"...a car I had had for 11 years. It had been in NH, AZ, CA, San Diego to Chicago, Chicago to NH and last stop Texas. A few hours before FITP training started I was rear-ended. Now I'm positive the accident gave me a concussion but I refused to accept that at the time and pushed to do training. It was like seeing a best friend being towed away because of all the memories. I bought another Jetta, this time white. It also was refreshing to start new since I believe material objects do hold a lot of energy from past memories.

My sister sent SO many loving, supportive texts through the training- and always. This is one my favorite quotes she sent:

1st home-cooked meal in my new home:

Moving into my new apartment, I was determined to not spend a lot of money on "stuff"- at the time I still had a whole storage unit of "stuff" I no longer wanted in San Diego. Two years without a home taught me to be so detached from material goods. A grandma-age friend I made while staying in the Pearland Airbnb last summer was super connected to the Houston thrift shops. One of these shops (Mustard Seed) receives brand new furniture donations from Costco and sells to customers for 50% off. I found a perfect sectional sofa for $499 here.

The best part- the shop employs previously homeless citizens run the store, pictured on the left below is Larry. He generously offered to ride to my apartment and help us move the sofa up 3 flights of stairs for free. I was exhausted, tired, anxious in this month from all I mentioned above. My boyfriend at the time was being incredibly patient but I'm sure was pretty tired too, rightfully so. As we drove with Larry, he spoke such strong messages of God, giving, patience, gratitude. He was a calmness to the storm, refreshing both Leo and me on life. I'm forever grateful for both of their help moving me into my new home.

The same time that I was moving into my apartment, my parents were busy in Florida moving my beloved grandma from her home to a nursing home. In that chaotic world, me dad generously packed up many boxes of her kitchen goods and shipped them to her. It brought so many good memories of FL family meals to Houston: