DAYTON, Ohio (WDTN) — When you truly find your passion, it might just impact everything you do.
That is definitely the case for one Fort Loramie graduate, who also happens to be a semi-professional skydiver.
2 NEWS Today Anchor Lauren Wood talked to the gold-medal winner this week. He explained how skydiving can change your attitude and your life in this week’s Tell Me Good News.
“I’m really passionate about this thing,” Daniel said. “But it keeps me passionate about life.”
Daniel and his 10-way team recently won gold at the United States Parachute Association’s Annual National Championship in Chicago.
But his entrance into the sport was a little different than most.
“Most people who jump as much as I do have a first jump experience and say, ‘This is what I’m gonna do forever,’” Daniel said. “I was not that person.”
Daniel now lives in Colorado, but he says his first dive was right here in the Miami Valley.
“My goal was I’m going to learn how to skydive until I’m not afraid of it,” Daniel said.
After about 15 jumps, something just clicked.
“I realized that I had found my thing and that I just I love sky diving,” Daniel said. “That was 10 years ago, and since that time I’ve made 1600 skydivers.”
But Daniel’s ultimate goal goes far beyond what he’s doing now.
Someday, he wants to jump with a jet pack and take off.
He says it may sound crazy, but it’s really part of a mindset that any of us can have.
“By showing people they can accomplish what they think that is so fearful,” Daniel said. “When you see someone get on the ground for the first time after jumping out of an airplane… if you can jump out of an airplane… you really can do anything in life.”
While Daniel would encourage you to try skydiving, he hopes most of all that you find what your own passion truly is.
“If someone has that thing–they found that one thing that they truly love to do all the time–it makes the rest of your life so much better,” Daniel said.
Lauren asked him what his family back here in Ohio thinks about all this.
He says they might think he’s a little crazy, but they’re very supportive. For that, he’s very thankful.
