On Sunday October 14th, the whole world watched as Felix Baumgartner sat in a little capsule and was carried up 128,100 feet into the stratosphere by a helium balloon. Once there, he opened the door, stepped out, said the words, “Sometimes you have to be really high, to see how small you are. I’m going home now.”… and jumped. In the air for 9 minutes and 9 seconds, he hit a top speed of 833.9 mph and broke multiple world records.
There have been a handful of moments in my life where I’ve watched an event unfold that was beyond real. I remember spending hours watching people work on the international space station and of course the 9-11 attacks. Every time I am witness to such events, my brain has a hard time believing they’re real. When reality does finally set in, a strange wave of emotion floods my system. “This isn’t a movie, it’s real life. It’s really happening, right now.”, I say to myself.
I’ve gone skydiving before, but I jumped from only 11,000 feet, which meant my free fall was only 12 seconds. To sit and watch Felix falling back to earth for 4 minutes and 22 seconds, with the entire earth spinning below him and millions of people watching the feed live, was a completely unreal moment. One I will never forget.
Sitting on the couch with my girlfriend Kim and her friend Marissa, watching Felix open the capsule door and step out, was one of those moments. Holding our breathe, the three of us were dead silent. Our eyes fixed on my laptop screen. Our hearts racing. At the complete mercy of whatever was going to happen next.
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