That’s just plain rude

I want to talk about something completely unrelated to skydiving today, but it’s a trend that I’ve noticed more and more lately and I think something just needs to be said. Feel free to share the following sentiment with anyone you feel might need it.

Technology is making people rude. Smart phones are making people socially ignorant and downright disrespectful in their real life interactions.

As someone who works in the social space, I get paid to consume the latest technology (iPhones, iPads, apps, social media, you name it, I’ve dabbled and I typically love it), but that doesn’t change my stance on true interpersonal communication. I’ve been known to stop an email chain in it’s tracks and pick up the phone when communication is no longer crystal clear (and I’ve had clients and friends alike thank me for doing so when tone seems to get lost), I don’t respond to texts or emails when involved in a face-to-face conversation and I rarely pick up the phone when I’m preoccupied with someone else – unless I’ve been expecting the call.

So, needless to say it baffles me that so many people have their faces buried in their smart phones while in the presence of other human beings. I have a couple friends who, every time they go to dinner, when the finish eating they both push their plates aside and get out their iPhones and start checking email, playing Draw Something, or whatever they are doing. Neither of them is talking to anyone else at the table – and they both seem completely content with that. Others I know have every alert on their phone set to push – text, email, twitter, Draw Something, Words with Friends, you name it – so it comes as no surprise when they can’t make it thought a conversation without looking at their phone because it’s dinging and vibrating every 5 minutes.

Not only do I wonder how these people manage to keep their batteries charged, but sometimes I wonder how they manage to keep real life friends. Maybe it’s just me, but I have a hard time believing I’m the only Gen Y’er (or whatever they’re calling us these days) who finds it incredibly rude when I’m mid-sentence and the person I’m talking to picks up their phone to respond to a text that just came through on their phone. I’m not alone in this, right?

If I had one wish it would be that people would back away from their phones, lift their eyes up and look at the actual people around them. Now, I can’t deny that I haven’t used my phone as a way to get out of having to have a conversation with someone I didn’t feel like talking to, or to avoid looking like a total loser while waiting for a friend at the bar, but all in all, I’m pretty proud of my technology habits. Sure, I check in on foursquare when I enter a new location, and yes, when I’m awaiting an email from an important client I will have my email push to let me know what’s going on, but when it comes to spending quality time with someone, it’s just that – quality time.

As technology continues to expand to create more efficiencies in our life, I truly hope it doesn’t encourage us to further distance ourselves from the people around us. After all, at the end of our lives, it’s going to be the smiles, laughs and moments we comiserated with the people in our physical world that will sand out the most…not the number of twitter replies or text messages received.

My challenge to you, put down your technology and enjoy those around you this weekend. I promise, Twitter, Facebook, and email will be there on Monday.

Love and Blue Skies!

Ashley

How Skydiving Changed My Life

This is one of my favorite columns in Parachutist Magazine and one of those things I make time to read in every issue. Some of these people have incredible stories of how they got into the sport and how being a skydiver has completely changed their lives.

Looking back over the year and change that I’ve been a part of this sport and a part of the community, I can add myself to that list of people who feel like their lives have been completely turned upside down since skydiving entered their life. I can also say that my life has changed for the better, and in some ways, I feel like it saved me.

Though my story is sort of ho-hum when you look at those featured in Parachutist, so instead of submitting to the magazine, I thought I’d share right here on the blog .

For those who have been following along since day 1, this may not come as much of a surprise, but for those who have picked up in the middle, you might pick up a thing or two about my journey in this crazy world of skydiving.

________________

Skydiving has changed my life in so many ways, it’s hard to know where to begin. I suppose I’ll start at the beginning (that would make sense…right?).

In my early 20s all that mattered to me was my career. My friends from college were scattered across the country and none of us were making enough money yet to visit each other, so rather than spend time building a new life, I spent it behind a computer, working my way to the top. My efforts did not go unrewarded. Promotions happened frequently and I earned my position in social media marketing through hard work and dedication to my company and my clients.

No regrets there. I worked hard for my successes and am proud of where those efforts have taken me. But something was missing. I wasn’t passionate about my life. I got up in the morning because I knew I had to in order to get ahead, in order to pay the bills, in order to save enough money to take trips to see my friends that I missed so dearly. I worked hard to find myself again, blogging about life and the “adventures” I had meeting new people and traveling for work, but in the end, these corporate trips were not sufficiently scratching the itch that the travel bug was constantly giving me. So 3 years into my career I took my first real vacation, one in which I made my first skydive, and had my eyes opened to what life really has to offer – what it means to truly be alive. It showed me what I was missing, that there’s more to life than getting ahead in the corporate world, that life needs more facets than just career success.

Skydiving presented a new personal challenge, and a new challenge is just what I needed…something to keep me on my toes, something to remind me that I’m alive! It showed me just how strong I am, just how much I am capable of overcoming – it showed me that I can do just about anything I set my mind to. Never did I imagine that I would learn so much about myself in such a small amount of time. Skydiving freed my soul from the confines of those things that are proper in life, the boundaries and the you shoulds that are forced upon you throughout your childhood and into your adult life. Skydiving showed me that you never really have to grow up!

Though it wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows, let me tell you that. Skydiving presented some hard lessons along the way too. I quickly learned what it means to not be invincible, that bad things can happen to anyone if you get complacent. These lessons presented themselves in the sky and on the ground. The community surrounding the sport taught me the importance of heightened awareness – keep your eyes and heart open, be prepared for the unexpected, you never know when a fellow jumper might make that wrong turn under canopy, but you might be surprised with whom you make deeper connections. For me, I was able to meet, fall in love with, and get engaged to my best friend and the love of my life because I was involved in skydiving and open to new experiences. I’ve also been able to meet and connect with a number of incredible skydivers with hearts larger than even SkyGod’s ego. Experiences I wouldn’t trade for the world!

Above all else, skydiving has taught me the importance of being a part of something greater than myself. It’s shown me how critical the community around you is to your well-being. There needs to be a sense of trust and understanding with those whom you share the sky. As skydivers, we inherently understand what makes each other tick, our common bond is one that the majority of the world will never understand. I’ve found that this sense of togetherness is strengthened when the community joins to support a cause that goes beyond that of the individual skydiver and truly tugs at your soul. Coordinating Jump for Diabetes this year gave me a glimpse of the immense generosity of the individuals within the skydiving community. It was so incredibly heart-warming to see so many manufactures, skydivers and their family and friends come out to support a cause that is greater than all of us combined. It speaks volumes about the type of people the sport attracts, and further solidifies why I continue to be drawn to the skydiving community.

What all these lessons from the world of skydiving have in common is this: be passionate. Having passion for something, anything (whether it’s skydiving, or tending a garden, or raising a family, or a multitude of life’s treasures) makes life fulfilling. Passion gives you something to live for, it provides motivation, it gives you a better sense of who you are as a person; a living, breathing human being who is on this Earth for a reason. Since I started skydiving little more than a year ago, I’ve found that I live my life with purpose. There are numerous facets of Ashley that I’m proud to admit have all become priority – friends, family, travel, career, new experiences, photography, writing, health & wellness, and of course, skydiving – these are all things for which I have great love and passion. Skydiving continues to teach me about the person that I want to be, and one step at a time it’s helping me get there.

So tell us dear readers, how has skydiving changed your life?

Love and Blue Skies!

Ashley

DZ Friends

The importance of drop zone friends is highly underrated.

These last couple months at my home drop zone I have had the pleasure of meeting not only some great skydivers, but some wonderful friends as well.

It’s a great feeling when you head out to the DZ on a busy weekend and are welcomed by all the regulars. It’s like a little skydiving family out there. Everyone is cheering on everyone else, excited to see the reactions from the first timers, enjoying the crazy parachuting tricks of the veterans.

It’s comforting to know that, for me at least, everyone is looking out for me. It is not uncommon to be headed out to the plane and get stopped two or three times by different jump masters who want to look over my equipment one more time. This, of course, is welcomed. You can never be too careful.

I’m still meeting new faces every weekend, but the more regulars I meet, the more I feel like Cleveland Parachute is a home.

Do y’all feel this way about your home DZ too?

Blue Skies!

Ashley