HookABrothaUp

Hey fam, as most of you know I began skydiving 4 years ago and ever since I’ve been chasing the dream of being a skydiving instructor, So far I’ve invested over $20,000 in training, I’ve lost multiple friends in this sport, witnessed countless life altering Injuries, I’ve been injured myself, and had a lot of near death misses, but nothing has deterred me. I’ve met the most amazing people from all around the world I even got to go BASE jumping with the worlds only double amputee wingsuiter and gold medalist, I discovered the most amazing community of people who support and encourage me in living a fullfilled and healthy lifestyle, skydiving found me in a dark place in life there’s only a handful of people who know that I attempted to end my life a few years back by throwing myself into a nearly frozen Mississippi River and as far as I remember it worked I remember the burn of my lungs filling up with water, my toes dragging across the sand at the bottom of the river while the current held me down and then everything got peaceful I accepted my death and I floated away with the current and everything went black, then the next thing I remember I was on shore coughing out water and throwing up, I sat on the shore of the river staring off blankly trying to figure out how I was still alive until a fisherman saw me and called 911 I spent a week in the hospital recovering from hypothermia, and undergoing psych evals and it took me quite awhile and years of therapy to recover mentally from all of that it wasn’t until I was placed in a position to help save this little Somalian girl who had just been kidnapped they didn’t even know she was kidnapped yet and I was the one that chased down her kidnapper threw downtown Saint Paul and got her to safety, that was my oh shit I’m here for a reason moment, I was already living on the drop zone at this point so I went home grabbed my parachute and went for a skydive to calm my nerves after what had just happened, and it was at that moment I decided that my purpose was to spread love and kindness, and to help others find their purpose. in order to to be that person I had to dig deep and do a lot of soul searching to uncover who I really was under the mask I wore for the world, the mask that had kept me safe while gang banging around Long Beach, the mask that protected me while I was in prison. It was a lie, but taking that mask off and opening myself up to being vulnerable was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done and it still is something I work on daily but what got me threw it was skydiving and the community I found in it, my story is very similar to a lot of skydivers I’ve met none of us came to this with a sound mind lol we were all trying to escape something and in doing so we ended up finding ourselves. Skydiving truly saved my life and helped me find my purpose and my tribe, and that’s a gift I want to share with the world I’ve witnessed thousands of people take their first dive and not every time, but sometimes there’s a magic that happens you can see it in their eyes and you know their life just changed I’ve watched many new skydivers come into the sport broken and beaten down thinking they had nothing else to live for and I’ve watched them come alive I’ve taught them how to fly, my little baby birds! I’ve  stayed up till sunrise hearing their stories and sharing mine. This sport has a way of helping people face themselves and in todays world I think that’s something we can use a little more of and so I’ve decided that this will be my gift to the world. so I made the scary leap of leaving a stable career as a production manager and business owner to pursue this dream  and I couldn’t be happier every decision has brought me one step closer to my goal, and it’s almost come to fruition. I’m currently in Florida working at skydive city and trying to complete my training, but the weather has not been cooperating it even snowed here in Florida  lol so we haven’t been working much and now it’s getting down to the wire of me being able to complete my training before I head back to Wisconsin in April where I have a full time position as a skydiving instructor and tandem master waiting for me if I get this training done in time, so I’m reaching out to the family to try and raise the rest of the money I need to pay for finishing my AFF instructor rating, my Tandem sigma instructor rating and to finishing up my senior parachute rigging certification with the FAA the training starts the same week as my birthday feb 12 and will end march 12th if I can pull this off, and since we got a big ass family I figured this would be a good place to start. I ask that you please respect my wishes to keep this off of social media I haven’t shared my story publicly, only a few close friends know about it so please keep it in the family. Thank you all for taking the time to read this. I hope everyone’s having a good winter, thank you, and I love you !!