If all your friends jumped out off the Brooklyn Bridge…

As of Saturday, I can now answer that longstanding parental question: Yes. Yes, I would.

There I was Saturday morning, feet dangling from a plane 14,000 feet above the ground, feeling the intense winds blowing across my face and gasping at the view below.

While I entertained many thoughts and ideas leading up to my first skydive, there was one question dominating my mind as I stared out into open sky: What in the world have I gotten myself into?

Incidentally, the answer is pretty simple.

In an effort to highlight all of the fun and exciting things Suffolk has to offer its citizens, our editor, Tim Reeves, thought it would be a genius idea to have a reporter jump out of an airplane at Skydive Suffolk, and document the experience for an article.

Guess who that reporter was?

That’s right, I’m the idiot who says “Absolutely,” when asked in a staff meeting if she would ever jump out of a plane.

Two weeks later, I was miles above the city, clutching the life out of my safety harness as I was doing my first ever tandem jump.

Not to give too much of the article away, but skydiving will go down as one of the coolest and most incredible experiences I have ever had. It’s a five and a half minute rush of adrenaline, anxiety, exhilaration and awe. Plus, you really can’t beat the view.

Now, for all of those who are thinking of one day trying skydiving for themselves, let me give you just a few tips from experience.

First of all, fight the urge to Google, YouTube or research anything to do with skydiving. Knowing the fatality rate of skydiving does not, in fact, help you get out of the plane — it tends to make the process harder.

Second, layer up — it’s cold up there.

Finally, I just hope you work in a warm and supportive environment.

I was not blessed in this specific area.

My co-workers hummed funeral dirges for the entire week leading up to my jump.

They routinely asked about my life insurance policy.

There was an office pool on whether I would throw up, if I made it out alive.

Troy Cooper, our graphic designer, went so far as to leave notes on various things on my desk with his initials on them so that it would be known he had called “dibs” on them.

Surprisingly, the rest of the office followed suit, and before I left work on Friday, everything from the Jim Halpert notepad to my anti-bacterial hand lotion had a Post-It Note attached.

Thankfully, I came in Saturday afternoon and reclaimed all of things.

Thanks again to the wonderful staff at Skydive Suffolk, and stay tuned for the article.