Insuring Ensuing Audacity

I've never given my mortality much thought.

Then there's this:

But I'm getting ahead of myself.

I've always been what I refer to as "safely reckless". That's just fancy lingo for 'I do things that could potentially cause me physical harm but I'm confident in my abilities to not screw up'. I will say that Death and I have been in close proximity on multiple occasions, but we never make eye contact. I just acknowledge his presence and continue doing whatever non sensible thing I was in the middle of.

I like to think of the world as my playground. Sidewalks become balance beams, small gates become hurdles, and anything climbable becomes a mountain that must be conquered. It's even worse when signs are posted that basically read: "That awesome idea you just had? Don't do it!"

Injuries AND fatalities?? Why are you doing this to me sign? It's not even saying "You might die!" it's saying "People have died you idiot! Stop!"

And the inevitable outcome

I just can't help myself. Those slippery dangerous rocks surrounded by a waterfall's current NEED to be conquered. And so goes my life. I've never had that moment of hesitation where my common sense breaks through my confidence and asks, "Is this a bad idea?" That is until a couple weeks ago.

It was another ordinary day at work when a coworker came up to me and suggested a spontaneous afternoon jump out of a moving plane. This feat had been collecting dust on my bucket list for some time. While I mentally calculated the amount of money I didn't have, he told me things like: "13,000 feet, 120 mph, 60 second freefall" This HAD to happen.

And just like that, there I was, 13,000 feet in the air, strapped to a man wearing a small backpack that was supposed to stop us from hurdling straight into the earth below. The plane levels off and begins to empty it's cargo. Like lemmings off of a cliff, my coworkers disappear out the door. Now I've had nerves of steel for the entirety of the experience thus far: Signing my life away, watching a "safety" video that looked like it had been ripped from an old Betamax tape, realizing that my tandem jumper is the one that looks like a slob and then watching him pack my chute, crowding 25 people into a small plane and being forced to listen to an old guy tell cheesy skydiving jokes, and watching the ground begin to look like Google Earth as we zoomed out to higher elevations. 

Then it's my turn. 

I shuffle to the edge of the doorway, my jumper asks if I'm ready, my cameraman exits the plan, and it hits me

I'M ABOUT TO JUMP OUT OF THIS PLANE!? IS THIS A BAD ID--

but before I could finish the thought we were tumbling into the blue. 

What a rush! It was a such an incredible experience and everything went flawlessly. But that odd little unfamiliar feeling got me thinking. I'm an occasionally reckless twenty-something who will probably become an occasionally reckless thirty-something with a family to take care of. What happens if I pull a stunt like that and things DON'T go flawlessly? What happens to my family if my need to conquer the mountain goes horribly wrong? Well if I've invested in life insurance, they will have a good head start at rebuilding what was lost.

What I knew about life insurance consisted of information from movies or the odd news story. It was always somebody trying to make someone 'disappear' in order to collect some large amount of money. It just seemed like really greedy people trying to make money off of really rich people. I didn't understand how it worked or why someone would even get it. As far as the movies told me, it was a bounty on your head to whatever greedy family member you had tied to the policy.

Not even close.

The reason someone gets life insurance is because they care about their family. If I'm the sole earner in my house so my wife can take care of our kids, my death would put them in financial and family ruin. Dealing with the trauma of my passing is hard enough. Now stack on bill after bill, calls from creditors, calls from your bank wondering why you didn't make last month's payment, even grocery shopping! Debt piles up pretty quickly in a family household with zero income.  

Life insurance fixes all of these problems. For a few periodic payments I can give my family comfort if anything does happen, and myself peace of mind knowing that I can take care of them, even in death.