Evon Evance: Skydiving in Zanzibar made me conquer all my fears

Zanzibar. Since she was a toddler Evon Evance has always been a daredevil.

Her dad would encourage her and proudly clap for her as she would jump around and do stunts that would bring a smile to her dad’s face but would make her mom cringe.

That has not changed much in her adulthood.

To celebrate her birthday, she decided to go to Zanzibar and jump out of a plane.

She knew this was a little bit extreme, so she did not tell her mother but informed her dad of her plan to skydive, and he was excited.

“He told me to go for it and was happy for me,” she remembers. She only called her mom after she had safely landed. “I sent my mom the pictures, showing that I am alive and safe,” she laughed.

Her friends joked about her impending new adventure from the skies; they told her that her tombstone would read the same date as when she was born and died, but with just different years because she would have died on her birthday.

Every one of her friends was mortified upon learning that she was about to be a superwoman flying the skies, at least momentarily.

For Evon, her superpower has not been flight but the ability to thrive under pressure and intense situations; furthermore, that’s how she likes it. “I love wanderlust, I love trying new things and I love adrenaline,” she would explain.

Last year, she went to Zimbabwe to do bungee jumping at Victoria Falls, another daring feat she accomplished. So all that was left on her wish list was skydiving, and Zanzibar was the place.

Evon is in love with the adrenaline rush, so much so that even when she is driving, she drives very fast. “Growing up, I would swing on my dad’s arms, climb trees, and play with boys,” she added.

That love for adrenaline is even in her daily life; she does not dwell in a comfort zone; she likes to engage in activities that trigger her adrenaline; and it improves her creativity as a writer, content marketer, website designer, and video editor, among other things.

On the day she went skydiving in Zanzibar, the weather was not ideal for the dive; it was rainy and the sky had not cleared.

It’s not the safest time to skydive because the clouds can obscure one’s sight, so they had to wait a bit before they took off.

“It was a bit chilly up there, but we were ready for some fun,” she chimed in.

She was skydiving in tandem, that is, diving with an expert behind her, so the technical know-how burden was left on him, and she just had to watch a video that gave her the instructions she had to follow.

“The instructions were not intense, just stuff that was easy to remember,” she said.

As they were heading to the airport to get on the plane, she was given additional instructions, which were for takeoff.

Once in the air, a moment of doubt crept into her mind, and she momentarily thought to abandon the jump after she saw the first group jump out of the plane.

She exclaimed and was hesitant, but she quickly shook that off and jumped out of the plane with her instructor right behind her. “I could not believe I was seeing this with my own eyes; the scenes were so beautiful I forgot to be scared,” she said.

Evon couldn’t believe that she was seeing it with her own eyes; she has had the view of the sky from the comfort of a plane window.

But she was now feeling the cold air splash on her face as she was falling. “Seeing the view from the airplane window is different from skydiving; this was a gift to myself,” she said.

The event was mind-blowing and worth it. Because skydiving is seemingly one of the scariest things people think one can do, she had just conquered her fear, and that was her affirmation that she can do anything in life.

“It was all worth it because of what it meant to me,” she added. “It was more of a spiritual thing than a physical thing to me,” she chimed in.

Evon plans to skydive again; she is always pushing the limits and hates a comfort zone.

They say the best of life is on the side away from your comfort zone, and none lives this as Evon does.

She advises young people to think outside the box. A comfort zone is like a small prison a person sets for themselves.

“Most of the fear is not even an objective, and it’s of things that haven’t happened and maybe wouldn’t happen,” she explained.

Evon believes most of the fear one holds is passed on to them by people who are scared too, who themselves never dared to try doing things they are scared about.

“We are all going to die anyway someday; why not live your life and write your own story?” she explains.

Stop believing the things that you have heard; this is bad; that is dangerous; go out there and find it for yourself, she noted.

Numerous people from across the world have shared their experience skydiving in Zanzibar.

What a thrilling experience it is, they say. And more importantly, what conquering one’s fear does to the body and the mind in facing future battles in facing this one-time experience called life.

Skydiving and mountain Kilimanjaro climbing are two of the rare moments in which tourism is directly linked to adrenaline-pumped adventure when visiting Tanzania.

It is an experience that will make good stories for the young children when we grow older and have to narrate our life adventures to the young ones, and I hope you get to have a story to tell. No good story comes from a comfort zone.