Espirit De Icarus

---

Man has forever been striving for freedom, and in a manner of speaking, dreaming to break free and fly away. It's not a new dream, to 'spread your wings and fly'. We see it in myths (the flight of Icarus), you must've experienced it in your own lives and today, we hear it in songs (Kelly Clarkson - Breakaway, R.Kelly - I believe I can fly ...) too. So what happens when a bunch of SMU students get bent upon the idea of flight? No, you don't get the Wright Bros. again ... but close! You get the SMUXceed Skydiving Team. Why you may ask would anyone want to jump out of a plane in flight with no imminent threat? Let's find out ...

Ngiang Boon Loong wishes to skydives because, "The spirit of skydiving is one of believing that nothing is impossible ..." while Paul says "To push myself both physically and mentally; taking a step toward finding my own limitations and extremes and going outside my own comfort-zone. " So, what's my take on it having been a part of the same team? Well coz this is as 'extreme' as is available to me right now ... I'd love to go a step further, but alas.

So they tread this path to conquer the skies and in their walk do they conquer their fears? Most people do find the thought of jumping out of a plane cruising somewhere across the blue yonder scary. Do the daredevils of the skies have apprehensions? They recently excursion-ed to Genting, Malaysia for an ultimate vertical wind-tunnel thrust and here are some thoughts before they went in ... well at least here's mine, "Big Tunnel, with big fan and lotsa wind … Hope it’s fun!"