Page 4 - Dear aviator...

Who was I?

In order for any of this to make sense, it is important for you, the reader, to have
an idea who is talking to you and what his background is. Otherwise there is
nothing for you to latch on to. So… who was I?

I use the past tense because I am a different person today than what I was when I
started this journey. Aviation has this knack for changing people; for changing
them profoundly and in profoundly different ways: arrogant people become humble;
shy people discover themselves as being braver than they ever thought possible;
leaders become listeners, etc… and this should come as no surprise: aviation is the
art of adaptation to constantly changing conditions and circumstances so in the
end it is those who learn to change that are the ones who come out as successful
aviators at the other end.

In June of 2017 I had just turned 38 and my partner convinced me to gift myself a
three-flight “introduction” package at a local flight school. She knew of my interest
in flying and I had not been reticent in mentioning that I would have liked to try. At
the same time, though, I was also asking myself what the point was. “I’m going to
spend 600 dollars for something that is not going to take me anywhere. It’s not like
I’m going to actually get into training right? I can’t afford aviation as a hobby and I
certainly can’t afford the training necessary to get to professional standards, right?”
Moreover, I was under the impression that I was too old. But let’s get into some
specifics.

At the time I had been working for just over four years in a full time humble
administrative position making a steady living wage. The position could be termed
as “cushy” as I had no major responsibilities and could rely on a repetitive and
predictable schedule. I was relatively certain that unless some major upheaval took
place, it was a job I could have kept indefinitely as over those previous years I had
made myself somewhat of the mister fixit for all those small little interruptions
(mostly IT based) that can stop the inner workings of that type of operation.

However, it was also a dead-end job since I was answering directly to my
department manager and had no prospect of getting into a managerial position -
the business was a not-for-profit organisation and those top-end positions were for
the most part assigned based on political prerequisites.

So there I was, wondering if at 38 I was at the apex of my professional life, taking
enrolments for language courses, helping my middle aged colleagues retrieve
unsaved word documents and assisting my manager in unfreezing his computer…
serving wine and washing dishes during public events… setting up exhibitions…
maintaining projectors for our lessons… you get the idea.

I was dreading that prospect with all my heart and had been looking for other job
opportunities over the previous 18 months but, unsurprisingly, had had very little
luck.

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