Néstor Araujo, from Arenaza (Lincoln, Argentina), had spent decades putting off a dream: skydiving. For years, he was sure he would do it when he turned 90. But at 89, he realized he didn’t want to keep waiting.
He did it at Aeroclub Vedia, sitting on the edge of the plane beside his instructor, thousands of meters above the ground. He says he barely noticed the moment they jumped. Then came a feeling he found hard to explain: “I felt a calm that was hard to explain”. During free fall, he felt as though he was floating, and the landing was so gentle he barely noticed it. He jumped wearing an old number 9 shirt from Club Deportivo y Social Arenaza.
The moment that moved him most came once he was back on the ground. Still lying beside his instructor, he saw his son Hernán, who had organized everything, walking toward him to give him a hug. “When you’ve been around for a long time, you have to live in the present, because the future is very close”, Néstor summed up. And he’s already thinking about doing it again.