Aviation Biography: Flying Wild II

By the next trip to O’ahu I had gained some sort of knowledge. The same smell filled the air: freshly brewed coffee with a hint of cinnamon. Planes taxiing to and from the gates. Still the same colors: red, white, and blue. The occasional plane covered in a darker blue marked Southwest on the side would appear. Still questioning and being introduced to the sea around me, I had definitely known more things this time than last time. That being said, I knew what a flight attendant was, pilots, what the uniform stripes meant, and what HNL and LIH meant. Aviation is a whole new language that was very confusing to me at the time, but it soon wouldn’t be. 

---

Among all the crowds in the airport were tiny details that once again appeared, as I had never noticed fully before on previous trips. Wandering to the gate so mesmerized by the large panes of glass displaying a picturesque apron with large planes, I sat there fully intrigued. Gloss finished paintings of the airport covered the walls. The same uniforms were wandering the walkways. Some walking, some running, and some stopping to take a sweet little picture. I still remember every single detail as if it was yesterday. Walking on and walking off the plane felt all too powerful. Every single food item that I had eaten, what it tasted like, and smelled like. Once again: I felt like I was in a whole other world that felt like a second home. 

30,000 feet was the cruising altitude of the Boeing 767 airplane. Seeing the world from that high made it seem so small but yet so beautiful. My ears began to feel pain behind them. My head felt like it was on a puff of clouds floating towards heaven. I felt close, close to heaven, and close to God. The creation of flight is amazing and very nice. Flying is something that I can't quite describe properly as I have a lack of words. There is something that is just so indescribable to me about the action of flying. Tres Beau is a phrase the French use to describe something so beautiful. I can also add the phrase 'so schön' to that statement as well. I could easily say to myself that aviation is such a beautiful thing. A concept so well understood by mankind but yet so far from reaching its capacity. 

O’ahu was a very gorgeous place as well. Another thing that sparked my interest was attending the Pacific Aviation Museum. Planes parked in the hangar that dated back to world war II. I mean, it was very neat being able to visually see history. This is the moment that sparked vintage aviation in my soul. Stepping a foot in that museum was taking a step back in the past that captivated my soul.

At this point my life began to drastically change. My life would have never been the same from this point. I have officially found who I am supposed to be, longing for the future I once again returned home to only continue the research. Time went on and I kept going never quitting or getting tired. I spent so much time trying to get a good understanding of what and why. There is no simple way of turning back now. 

Every time a plane had passed by I would look up. I could never help but wonder where they were going. Planes crossed paths in the sky creating an X where each contrail intersected. They’d light up pink, orange, or even yellow when the sun went down. Each kissed the clouds as the planes floated on through. Creating a photographic painting in the sky above. Completely seduced by the greatness of aviation one day at a time. There was not a doubt that something was just different. There was never any words to describe it; like it was just calling me home -yet something so foreign. 

Soon after I thought about being  a flight attendant. It just seemed so right, jetting around the world, and not a worry in the world. Still not knowing the future in this ever changing world I thought that was my solid career choice for the future. Being a flight attendant would open a new idea. 

Jumping up for joy at another trip to Hawaii, flying though the skies again, and touching the clouds through the metal bird. I never believed I’d be this high in the sky and this happy. Aviation was there changing my world one minute at a time. Looking at the men and the women in uniform and taking in consideration everything my mind grew further in curiosity. I never wasted a moment in the airport. I took mental notes and evaluations of everything because I couldn’t return until the next year -a long, excruciating year. It felt like decades between airport visits: running through the woods, chasing the birds, and while getting tackled by ravenous wolves. Nothing ever stays the same. sometimes I worried why, who, when, or even worse: would my newfound world fade away. I did not want to every forget about my new found world...

Dreams are such a bold thing. Amelia Earhart had become my role model. So many things had been brought to pass by this wonderful, young woman who was willing to fight for her passion. She never gave up despite persecutions because she was a woman. Still chasing the bird despite being chased by the ravenous wolf, perspectives had changed. The best thing in the world to someone can soon turn into the worst thing ever. That bird can change into the wolf if you let the other voices get to your soul. Yet, Amelia Earhart always focused on the bird and not the wolf, which was the people who did not agree with her choice. 

There was a time that I had attempted to hide from aviation -the grasp of my passion. I wanted to escape my new passion, it was just not me anymore. I forgot the past. It would be easier for me to just give up aviation rather than keep doing extensive research. Nothing more seemed too interesting at this point. Everything just seemed like a twinkle in my eye that never should have existed. Time went on and I had felt like I had been hit by a train of confusion -like something was missing. I was happy, but not as much as when I loved planes and the sky. Pleading to find the way back, I had found biology. For a while biology seemed very redeemable. It only made sense, I loved science and biology was my favorite class. 

I still remember that year -the year that I was wondering what the future might bring for me. My mind was racing a million parsecs per second, at least that is what it seemed like. I further ended up searching the world for more reasonable answers to my life dilemma. Colors were still meshed together. Biology started to not make sense. Ribosomes carrying RNA and switching it to use a protein? What is the difference between Mitosis and Miosis? Deoxyribonucleic acid? So curious but yet I didn’t seem to understand. 

I couldn’t help but think about aviation and airplanes once again. The planes; they dotted the sky hinting at the short time that had clocked by. My dream was right in front of me, my destiny, but yet I was so naïve -at the moment. I was letting time pass, stress pass, when my dream was right in front, and right in the sky. I knew one thing and one thing for sure: the sky called my name. It was written in bold cursive in the clouds calling out to my soul.

I wanted to be a pilot; a pilot that would touch the sky and jump on the clouds. I wanted to fly a 737. I knew that I was alone and that not a lot wanted to pursue something so unthinkable. It was hard for me to wrap my head around the concept. I wanted to be a pilot. I wanted to be a pilot soaring through the sky at 35,000 feet, 470 miles per hour, through and over a storm. 

I understood that not very many people wanted to be pilots, especially females. I was partially alone, but I wanted to prove that I can do it. I wanted to prove to everyone the great things that a person can do if they just put their mind to it. Great things come from those who try. I want to take every opportunity that I get to do good things and to do what is best for my passion. Create a dream and leave it a legacy. 

What a dream is what I like to call it. Special night skies glisten and I actually recognize it. The sky is my home, the home that I never realized I had a connection to. The years of 2017, 2018, and 2019 were filled with so many good things and now I have even more good things to come. I would call aviation a passion, a fire that burns deep within a soul, or maybe even a deep burgundy rose blooming in the heart. It seems so impossible, but the impossible is always possible. Amelia Earhart once said, "the only effective way to do it is to do it." That statement resonated within my soul. Another quote by Henry Ford also stuck with me, and that is as follows: "When everything seems to be going against you, remember that the airplane takes off against the wind, not with it.” The pure thought of flying is what got me intrigued with the industry...
​
What is flight to me? Maybe flight is just the thought of being a bird... flapping her wings. Maybe the concept of flight is just something overlooked. There is more and this journey is not done yet, it has just begun.

"Flying is freedom and freedom is flight."
'jettAV8R