The moment right before the jump, Catriel Guillén says, he wanted it to last forever.
Standing at the edge of a plane over Melipilla, a small town southwest of Santiago in Chile, the X-Team Senior Software Engineer had spent years dreaming about exactly this — and now that it was actually happening, part of him wasn't ready to step off. He let the professionals take over, shut himself down so he wouldn't panic, and then they were out.
In this story, Guillén describes what the freefall actually felt like, the family tradition behind the dream and why he's already planning to go back up.
A Dream Decades in the Making
Guillén had wanted to skydive for as long as he could remember. Every December, he and his mother would make the same resolution: next year, they'd finally do it. Every year, it didn't happen — until this past January, when his girlfriend contacted a skydiving center, made a reservation and gave him the session as a birthday gift.
"She's the best," he says. The family enthusiasm was real. His mother had been in on the conversation for years and was just as excited as he was when the jump was finally confirmed.
In the hours before the dive, Guillén wasn't particularly nervous. He was enjoying the weather, watching other jumpers board the plane, take off and land — feeling more impatient than anxious. He was excited enough that he skipped both breakfast and lunch.
The Jump
Once he was on the plane and ascending, the reality of the moment started to settle in. "Right before the jump, everything is just so unreal," he says. "You're there and you barely understand what's happening."
When they went over the edge, the physical sensation overwhelmed everything else. A wall of pressure from the air. His goggles pressing hard against his head. He lost all sense of control and shouted. Between the speed and the disorientation, he did his best to take in the view and strike poses for the camera — harder than it sounds, he notes, when you're dropping at that pace.
The landing brought a different kind of feeling. He was a little dizzy — possibly from not eating — and still felt like he was floating. But underneath that was something quieter: relief. "I had my feet on the ground. I was safe. And I'd accomplished something I'd been wanting to do for my entire life."
Would He Do It Again?
Without hesitation: yes. His only note for next time is to eat something before the jump.
He's already thinking about the occasion. His mother's birthday, he says, would be the perfect opportunity to share the experience — a chance to finally fulfill the annual December resolution the two of them had been making for years. The dream that started as a recurring conversation between a son and his mother may yet become something they cross off together.
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