Bryan go for it!!! It'll be the most exciting thing you'll ever do and it'll change your life forever!!! Definitely do a tandem so that you can get out there faster and you also need to have the minute or so of freefall. You haven't truly experienced skydiving until you actually "dive" out of the sky at 125mph !
For me, it was simply transformational. During that second as I was nudging out towards the edge of the door and I can see down below, that little voice in my head was absolutely screaming! It was yelling stuff like:
You're gonna DIE !!!
You've never done this before!!!
You don't know what you're doing!!!
You gonna be a quadrapelegic if you can even survive the impact!!!
You don't even have life insurance!!!
What is your family gonna think?!#!
Then the tandem instructor shoved me out and we did about 10 summerfaults and I could see the horizon just flipping over and over. We flattened out, arched and the sensation of speed was just immense as 125mph certainly feels fast when there's no car around you. We practiced some turns, scooted forwards and backwards and after a minute it was time to pull the cord.
What happened next was simply astounding. Going from shear adrenaline, cocaine-like speed rush from the freefall to the quiet serenity and peace once the parachute opened was quite a shock. As I'm floating down and can check out the scenery (4000ft is still too tall to see man-made features), there's like a communion with nature and the planet; a spiritual experience of sorts.
Then we spiraled a couple times to line up with the landing zone. Came in right on target, flared the chute and my feet touched down no harder than getting off the couch. Wow... what an experience.
The big thing for me was recognizing the difference and disparity between the voice in my head was screaming and what actually happened in reality. The voice said it was all over with and what actually happened was I fell out of the sky, the parachute opened, I landed and I had a great time! >CLICK< the light went off...
So the next day, I went in, quit my job of 10-years and started my own computer-consulting business. I had been contemplating doing it for 6-months but the voice kept on saying:
You're gonna FAIL!!!
You've never done this before!!!
You don't know what you're doing!!!
You gonna be go bankrupt and be standing in line at soup-kitchens !!!
You're not licensed and bonded!!!
What is your family gonna think?!#!
So the skydive made me realize that the voice was lying to me all this time. It had been keeping me from achieving my dreams in life. After that jump, I can now completely ignore that voice when it wants to stop me and I just respond with,
"Thank you for sharing, I'm going to do my next big thing now."...