The Parachute Lady

A friend of mine had invited me to a party. When I arrived, however, I discovered that my friend was the only person there that I knew and he was quite occupied being the host.

Determined to enjoy myself anyway, I proceeded to I approach people in hopes of finding someone with whom to strike up an interesting conversation. After several unsuccessful attempts I approached a young woman. She was considerably younger than I and at first seemed quite reticent to engage in conversation.

I finally got around to asking about her personal interests and was amazed to find she was an avid Parachutist. Although I considered myself somewhat athletic, my choice of sports had always allowed me to remain considerably closer to the ground than parachute jumping, so my first reaction was “How in the world do you do that?”

She looked directly at me and spoke the following words.

Well, when I am folding up my parachute, I say to myself “I am folding up my parachute because I am going to jump out of an airplane”.

When I am putting on my jump suit, I say to myself “I am putting on my jump suit because I am going to jump out of an airplane”.

When I am putting on my boots, I say to myself “I am putting on my boots because I am going to jump out of an airplane”.

When I am boarding the airplane, I say to myself “I am boarding this airplane because I am going to jump out”.

When I get up there, after all that, I’d feel pretty silly if I don’t jump out.