Picture this: You are boarding a plane for a regularly scheduled flight. You take your seat, listen to a long list of safety instructions and get ready for take off. Once you have reached cruising altitude, instead of pulling out some headphones and relaxing, you decide that it’s best to jump out of said plane. Many would probably rather choose to listen to Taylor Swift in the comfort of their own seat, but not senior Sara Brodsky.
Brodsky is fueled by adrenaline, having no fear when it comes to thrill rides and experiences. Her hunger for adventure has taken her all across Florida as well as the country. Brodsky’s first upside-down rollercoaster was at Elitch Gardens in Colorado in 7th grade. She returned this past summer and was able to relive those memories.
Rollercoasters aren’t the only things that satisfy Brodsky’s thrill-seeking appetite. She has gone white water rafting in both Switzerland and Colorado.
“[In Colorado], we were going in category two and three rapids and when we were in a three, we got stuck on a rock, and another raft hit us,” Brodsky said. “My friend and I fell back out of the raft. She pulled herself back up but my foot wasn’t in right. So one second I’m in the raft, and the next I’m in the water, which is freezing. I look up and see the people in the raft holding out paddles to pull me in. Once I got back in safely I was like, ‘that was kinda fun.’”
Brodsky finally got to experience the ultimate thrill ride when she went skydiving on Oct. 7.
“In 7th grade, I put ‘skydiving’ on my calendar for my 18th birthday,” Brodsky said. “It has been there ever since. By the time my 18th birthday came around, I was ready to go, but it got cancelled due to weather conditions, so I went a week after.”
Brodsky tried to recruit family members and friends to go with her, but no one had the guts. That didn’t stop her from fulfilling her 18th birthday wish.
“I remember I woke up at three or four in the morning,” Brodsky said. “I couldn’t fall back asleep. I was really nervous, but mostly excited.”
Brodsky’s mom was nervous but also shocked that she was going to follow through with skydiving. Her mom tied an evil eye bracelet to Brodsky’s wrist to keep her safe.
“I had to sign a bunch of forms, which kind of freaked me out because they kept saying ‘this may result in injury or death’ over and over again,” Brodsky said. “I also had just turned 18, so it felt weird that I was doing all of the signing, not my mom.
Still, Brodsky was determined to jump out of a plane. She got geared up and didn’t think twice before entering the cabin. However, Brodsky immediately started to have doubts when the flight took off.
“On the plane ride up, I kept thinking that this was a mistake,” Brodsky said. “But at the same time I thought, ‘you’ve had this in your calendar since 7th grade. If you back out, you’ll beat yourself up forever.’ So I thought, ‘I have to do it now.’ Also, my skydiving instructor was a male model, so I couldn’t turn that down. As soon as I jumped, I wasn’t really scared anymore. My ears were popping a lot, and I couldn’t hear anything, so the instructor would use hand signals to communicate. When he pulled the parachute, it really hurt my legs, and when I got to the ground, I felt like I was going to throw up.”
After free-falling from a 18,000 feet in the air, Brodsky concluded her day with a well-deserved nap. After reading about her terrifying excursion, you might be surprised to hear that the scariest ride that Brodsky has been on wasn’t a death-defying free fall, but The Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man ride at Universal’s Islands of Adventure.
“When I went on the Spider-Man ride two years ago, it scared me so much,” Brodsky said. “I was screaming. There was a little girl behind me that was definitely judging me. I remember myself thinking, ‘I can’t believe I find this scary.’”
Now that Brodsky has conquered skydiving, she hopes to do the same with the simulation ride in the near future. Speaking of thrill rides she wants to do in the future, Brodsky wants to go bungee jumping, hang gliding and cliff swinging. If it will give her a rush of adrenaline, Brodsky is game.
