I hate heights. Always have and probably will for the rest of my life. I don’t know why. It is just some phobia I have. I can climb a ladder and roam around on a single-story roof, but anything higher than that I begin to get nervous and the higher it goes the more nervous I get even to the state of panic. Oh, I can fly in a passenger jet or go in high skyscraper buildings. I have been to the top of the pre-9-11 World Trade Center and the Empire State Building and felt a little uncomfortable but no more. It is just that vision of being on the edge and viewing the ground way down there with no fence or railing to stop me. However, I could not even go up the Space Needle in Seattle. I stayed on the ground.
When I was young, I had dreams of falling off a high spot or being pushed. I always woke up before I ever hit the ground. Someone said to me when I was young that if I ever hit the ground in my dreams I would have died. I don’t know if that is a fact or not. I wonder if that is a reason. Maybe in a previous life I fell off or was pushed. I am afraid of heights even today. The only consolation I have is that many people have the same fear of heights I have.
I would never make a paratrooper. Who would want to jump out of a perfectly good airplane?