UPDATE! I found out my boyfriend’s [19M] surprise present to me is to take me skydiving. But I [18F] have a crippling lifelong fear of heights. What do I do?

A Reddit user shared their panic over discovering her boyfriend’s surprise birthday present was a skydiving trip, despite her lifelong fear of heights. After spending hours trying to psych herself up and considering how to address her fears, it turned out to be an elaborate prank orchestrated by her boyfriend and best friend.

The real gift was something much more thoughtful—and far less terrifying. To find out how the story unfolded and how the user reacted, read the full update below…

For those who want to read the previous part: https://aita.pics/JPDGA 

‘ UPDATE! I found out my boyfriend’s [19M] surprise present to me is to take me skydiving. But I [18F] have a crippling lifelong fear of heights. What do I do?’

Well, I’ve had an eventful 24 hours. So to recap: on the 16th, my best friend Sara, who is friends with my boyfriend Alex, decided to warn me that my boyfriend was going to take me skydiving for my birthday, to which I completely freaked out about. So I read through everyone’s responses.

Towards the end I was watching videos of first time skydivers over and over again, trying to psych myself up to do it, since I decided I’d probably regret it if I didn’t go (even if I had a panic attack on the way there.) Alex came over the night I posted––I didn’t mention the skydiving to him exactly,

but I did reiterate and try to explain how bad my fear of heights was––and he was acting rather odd about it. He understood it completely, but just smiled and said, “Don’t worry about it, we’ll get through it together.” He then took a really quick exit. I tried getting in touch with Sara,

but she wasn’t picking up her phone; she just texted me to come over at night. So later that evening (on the 17th, the day before my birthday) I went over to Sara’s, who lives in the same building as me. A few of my girlfriends/future flatmates were there.

We chilled for a while, I talked about how terrified I was to skydive but that I’d decided I would give it a try. Sara had a weird, half-amused look on her face, and just replied, “Oh it’ll be over soon! He just wants to help you get over your fear!”

Then around 11 PM I got a random text from Alex telling me he was coming over. He came over to Sara’s and the two of them couldn’t stop giggling. At midnight on the 18th they both wished me a happy birthday… then Alex said, “So, Sara told me you already know what I’m going to get you.”

To which I replied, “Yeah?” And then Alex said, “Well, in about eight days, we’re going skydiving from the highest drop in Europe.” I started visibly freaking out at this point. Alex and Sara burst into laughter. Then Sara said, “F**k, I can’t keep this up anymore, I feel so bad. We’re joking. We wanted to scare you!”

Alex grabbed my hand and he said, “Of course I wouldn’t take you skydiving! I don’t want to kill you! We just really wanted to f**k with you since we knew you were catching onto us… Your real present is around the corner.” So I looked around the corner and there was a fishtank, all set up with a couple exotic fish, a heater, and a filter (just like I wanted)!

My babies are safe and sound and I’m not getting pushed out of an airplane, reddit! He apologised profusely and said (since a few days earlier I was beginning to to catch onto the idea that they were getting me fish) that he wanted to make sure my present was a surprise and that he had no idea how deep my fear was.

He said he was extremely sorry he’d ever caused me to freak out like that, but that he was never planning on taking me skydiving. Now Alex is taking me to the Natural History Museum and we’re gonna go for bubble tea and pancakes. I’m thrilled to pieces. This has been a really good birthday.

Here’s the feedback from the Reddit community:

inkypinkyblinkyclyde −  Thank you for cheering me up on a gloomy day. I hope you have a fantastic birthday and your fish enjoy their new home.

sleepyhouse −  I’m so glad him and Sara weren’t banging. On that note, yay good boyfriend! Happy birthday, OP!

leila0 −  That’s awesome! I’m glad things worked out with you guys. And I gotta say, there have been a lot of posts lately about people’s SOs pulling really s**tty/mean pranks, and this is a situation in which the prank was actually pretty good.

He can say he “got you” but he also takes the opportunity to re-affirm that he would never actually make you do something like that, and it all ends happily with fishes and a great birthday. Sounds like you guys have a pretty good relationship! Keep it up. 🙂

inspctrgdgt −  That is not where I thought that your update was going. Yay!!

RovingOpportunity −  WHY ARE THERE NO PICTURES OF THE FISHES?!?!

Jennzera −  Aww that is so good to hear! I’m glad that he knows you well enough to avoid something like that, and it sounds like he has a sense of humour to boot!

[Reddit User] −  FWIW, getting pushed out of an airplane (more like stepping out and getting pulled backwards) *is* an amazing way to conquer a fear of heights. I did it 3 years ago, and I was horrified in the plane on the way up,

it felt like such a rickety thing and I had to put my feet out on the landing gear outside of the plane and lean backwards with the tandem instructor to ‘jump’ out. And the moment I was out, my fear was gone. I knew the tandem cable would hold,

I knew my instructor had done this over ten thousand times without incident, I knew the chute would open because I watched him pack it meticulously. I was just enjoying the freefall, the huge view. I actually forgot to do my part in it and tuck my legs,

so we fell a little faster than we were supposed to (instructor was not amused). After that experience I don’t feel the least bit of fear when I am in ‘high up’ situations. But, I did this on my own, by my own choice, and was not dragged into it by others. Keep it on your mind as an idea and do it if you decide it is worth doing.

colakoala200 −  I awwed so hard. But it’s interesting. It sounds like you maybe learned that you might want to confront your p**bia sometime. Maybe not in a *forced* way though…

darksilverhawk −  Yay! Much better present. I was really worried when I started reading this update. I hope you’ll stop by /r/aquariums soon and show us your adorable birthday fish!

Murauder −  Happy birthday!. Next year you can go skydiving!