Excerpt: 'You Can Do It!'
June 20, 2005 — -- Laura Catuzzi Grandcolas, a former Girl Scout, dreamed of writing a "how to" book for women so they could do all the things they ever wanted, but never had time for. After Grandcolas died tragically on United Flight 93 on 9/11, her sisters decided to complete her book as a tribute to her. They hope it will inspire other women to live life to the fullest.
Following is an excerpt from "You Can Do It!"
Imagine This
You're falling but it feels like floating. You feel small, compared to the wide blue yonder all around you, but you also feel sturdy and strong as you steer and balance. And though you thought you had a sense of your senses, you now know how heightened they can be as you hear air and feel silence. When, all too soon, you feel the earth beneath your feet, you still feel like you're walking on air, flying high, giddy and grinning. You always wondered what training, skills, and equipment you'd need -- and if, when you got right down (or up!) to it, you could actually push yourself out of a plane and into the sky. Now you know! Gonna fly now? You can do it!
The Payoffs
I love being able to do something that we should not physically be able to do: Jump out of a plane!
--Jill Salo
Name: Jill Salo
What She Does: Jill is a skydiving instructor with about 1,800 skydives and 250 BASE (Buildings, Antennas, Spans, Earth) jumps to her credit.
Why She Does It: "It was something I had wanted to do since I was 12, when I saw a photograph of skydivers in a magazine. I remember running to my parents to tell them that this is what I wanted to do. They nodded in polite acknowledgement, and said that I would have to wait until I was 18. As the years went by, I grew ever more determined -- and on my 18th birthday, I asked permission to go skydiving. In South Africa (where I was living), one had to be 18 with signed parental consent, or 21 to jump as an individual. My parents, who had always prided themselves on keeping their word, said that they could not sign for me because they would never forgive themselves if something happened to me. So I waited another three years and, at 21, signed up for a course at the local parachute club. That first jump was amazing, and opened up a whole new world for me. I was so excited and couldn't stop babbling about my experience -- this coming from a normally quiet girl. My dad said 'The good news is that she lived, the bad news is that she loved it!' It was the most challenging and empowering thing I had ever done, and it changed my life. From that weekend, it was all I could think about, and I spent every moment I could at the 'drop zone.' "
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