Alison Trow lives in Grantham with her husband, Gabe Goesch. For her 40th birthday, she went hang gliding. The following is an edited interview.

For some people, their birthday is nothing. They just ignore it like any other day. But I wanted to do something I’d remember.

Turning 40 wasn’t a big deal, but I like to do something active for every birthday. One year I hiked Mount Washington, another year I flew in a glider, that sort of thing. I always like to mark the day with something that’s a challenge.

As you get older, you want to appreciate the body you have, and if it’s working for you pretty well, you might as well try to test it in every which way you can.

A fancy dinner is gone in an hour, but something like this, you take the experience with you. And life is about the experience; we’re only here for so long, so you might as well enjoy it.

Maybe it’s our professions, my being a physical therapist and my husband working the emergency room, we see people that don’t have the ability to do some of these things. It makes you appreciate that you do, and makes you want to take advantage of it. Each and every day we’re getting older and you never know what’s going to happen.

I once saw people hang gliding in the Alps. They would run and jump off the mountain, and just circle around like birds. I do a lot of hiking, and I remember thinking, “Can you imagine jumping off the mountain like that?” Since then, hang gliding has been something I’ve always wanted to do.

I was a little afraid that it would be like a roller coaster, where all of a sudden your stomach drops away and you never feel in control. It wasn’t like that at all. It was nice and smooth.

If you’re on a plane, you look out a window and look down you think, “Oh, that’s cool.” But being up there soaring, when you can see 360 degrees around you, and you can feel the air, turn in the wind, smell the water from the Connecticut River, it was just awesome.

It really felt like you were a bird. It’s the closest I’ve ever felt to flying.