another non-fiction
I Cheat the System
Before his phone call I was suffering from a severe episode of senioritis. It was my last semester of my high school career and I had nothing to do. I was president of the dance team and president of the drama club and no productions were coming up. My classes were a breeze and I had a tendency to sleep through them. I was itching for a thrill and my Get-The-Hell-Outta-Dodge syndrome was in full swing. His phone call was a heaven send, the perfect remedy. I have a horrible habit of curing boredom with idiocy but with this plan in mind I had found an acceptable solution.
The phone call was from my older brother. He’s 23 months older than me but with as similar as we are he might as well be 23 minuets older. He was in his first year at the Naval Academy and was itching for a thrill too. We quickly conspired to take a snowboarding trip during his spring break week which was the week before mine. For most this would have caused a problem but for me it didn’t even register. I had already gotten my acceptance letters from all my top choices for higher education and high school wouldn’t miss me for a few days.
Finally the day came and we strapped the boards to the top of the car. We liked people to see our boards and know we were headed for fun as they were off to work or school. After passing countless signs and jamming out to our road trip play list we pulled into our hotel in Gatlinburg, Tennessee. We unloaded our suitcases and boards and went to buy our tokens for the lift ride in the morning. Walking back to the hotel the tokens were heavy in my pocket and felt like they would burn quarter-sized holes through my jeans. I was anxious to get to the top of that mountain.
While out cruising the streets in search of a good place to stop for dinner later that night we passed a huge circular building. It was bright purple and yellow and the sign said Fly Time. As we got closer we could read the rest of the sign. It said “indoor skydiving”. My brother and I glanced at each other and there was no need for words. He swerved the car into the parking lot and my heart was set on doing this. It was perfect, indoor skydiving would without a doubt cure my restlessness.
Giant smiles covered our faces and our excitement was evident as we walked in. Then there it was; the risk sign. In big, bold, unholy, red letters it posted “Do not attempt if you have diabetes”. I felt the smile on my face fall as my brother started to frown. When you are diagnosed with diabetes they tell you can lead an absolutely normal life. They lie, what they mean to say is you can lead an absolutely boring life. I had been fighting this for as long as I can remember. Diabetics can not join the military, they can not get their pilots license, they can not get their diver’s certification, and they have to fight every year for their driver’s license. I figure what they don’t know can’t hurt them. We all have to sign liability papers any way. With the help from my doctor its how I hope to get my diver’s certification and if I can jump through all the hoops to get that it can’t be hard to get an hour of Fly Time.
I grab the keys from my brother and head out to the car. There I rip off my medical I.D. bracelet and give myself an extra shot of insulin. The extra shot is to hold me through the next two hours without my insulin pump, I take that off too. My insulin pump is my life force. Without it I feel naked and incomplete but it’s a dead give away that I’m diabetic. Throughout the years it has kept my life going but has held me back. People see a young woman with an insulin pump and pity me. They try to offer unneeded sympathy or support by saying things like “oh, my grandmother had diabetes.” Everyone’s diabetes is different and I am not anyone’s grandmother, I am a young woman with thrill issues. It’s on days like this when I feel oppressed and limited but I am strong and determined.
I walk back into Fly Time and my brother has already paid and is filling out forms. He hands me a clipboard with the liability papers and I smile. He has always been my co-conspirator against “the man”. We are then taken into the learning center and shown how to jump into and out of the air stream. The instructor goes over safety procedures and proper hand signals. More papers are filled out and we finally get to suite up for our jump. I get handed a bright red and white suite with fabric connecting the arms and legs like a flying squirrel and my brother gets into an identical one but blue. I have to giggle as we pull down our goggles. We look like Team America in our patriotic attire.
We are lead into the vault with our instructor and my heart races. It’s a circular room with padding on the walls and surrounding the floor. The floor is actually a giant screen which gives just like a trampoline as you walk across it. Underneath the screen is a huge fan which will provide the air stream powerful enough to lift human beings. The fan starts and the noise hurts my ears even with ear plugs in. My heart races even faster as my feet lift up off of the ground. I’m flying! Soon we get into “skydiving position” and our instructor takes us through tricks and spins. We fly higher and higher and everything melts away and just bliss remains. My brother and I grab hold of one another and my cheeks start to hurt from smiling. I laugh a laugh of pure joy from the heart because once again, I have cheated the system.