The Truest Form of Freedom

"Flying is freedom and freedom is flight."
​-Jetta

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Absolute insanity... innate beauty, but it feels so real. The blood rushing through veins as the heart pumps, curating a rush of adrenaline. The body feels unborn... unnatural -yet so feeble. Rushes of near preposterous feelings travel through as the plane maneuvers through the sky. The thoughts range deep within the mind about whether or not if these feelings are real, or just merely false. However, the realization hits that being 8,000 feet up is just solely different. Questions arise as each second pass. The blood rushing through the veins is injected with some sort of 'final frontier' of thoughts. Continuing the flight adds to the ridiculous perpetual motion of reoccurring thoughts. This is what I want... what I live for... what holds my breathe still to this day. 

While the statement above is very deep and quite hard to decipher, it is merely the closest way that I can describe aviation. Every moment spent up in the sky is a small dose of freedom. I remember when jettAV8R was in its early stages of development it was reigning deep on my mind just what I should use for an inspirational site 'motto' so to speak. I really wanted something that would show my feelings towards this indefinitely perfect subject and action of flight. After multiple drafts of recounting words that were short, sweet, and to the point, I finally hit the breaking point...

Every second of everyday the first thing I think about and the last thing I think about has to be flying. Moments of my life are spent recounting the 'glory days' of taking some of my first flights across the pacific ocean to an island chain called Hawaii. The vast array of clouds captured my soul and took hold of my heart. There is an all too famous saying that goes something like this, "memory is pure treasury." While there are several memories imbedded in my mind, it is only obvious that some of the most prominent ones have to do with flying. There is just something so deep about flying that just resonates with my spirit. 

While in the midst of choosing a motto to use everyday, I pondered several questions regarding my experience in the air. As a history-science enthusiast I always love to look back in time, which is always accompanied by the question scientists always ask, and that is "why?" While in the middle of revisiting past and present aviators 'words of wisdom' regarding the concept of flight I realized that there is one word and one concept that every aviator brings up. Taking the time to look this over and look at the bigger picture -after reading through thousands of quotes- I finally found the word: freedom. 

Many people ask themselves a popular question: 'what does freedom mean to me?' This specific question always gets pulled up in my enrolled college courses here at university. Well, what does freedom mean to me? In the constitution it specifically states that people have the rights to 'life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.' Sure that has something to do with freedom, in fact something huge with freedom. However, as each of our definitions of freedom is vastly different, I can definitely denote and declare mine. My personal definition of freedom solely has to do with flight. 

Amelia Earhart said, "There's more to life than being a passenger." While this was really apart of my life epiphany that I had about 6 years ago, it is also a part of this 'freedom.' See, since the near beginning of time people have been chasing their dreams, goals, hopes, and ambitions. I know this because I am one of them. Now, I would also like to denote that chasing those things brings forth so much happiness and freedom. In order to expand further on my definition of freedom I always find and remember my happy place in the sky. 

Ever since I was young I have strictly held a place in the sky.  My heart belongs up there, my soul yearns to touch the sky, and my mind attempts to fathom life up there. It was not until the cold month of December in the year 2016 I took a trip to Kauai in the Hawaiian island chain. Little did I know that this trip would change my life forever -it would never be the same. Every moment was even better than indulging in some of the sweetest delicacies on the planet. My mind pondered as I even stepped a foot into Salt Lake International Airport. This new world with a vast array of seemingly endless possibilities was opened to me -it was as if the door opened and it was calling my heart to come. 

Ever since that day I have long prospered over the question: 'what does freedom mean to me?' Personally, it is flight. Everything that has to do with flight has long captured my soul and my attention beyond any means. Whilst coming up with this sort of quote for my newfound blog, I pondered that question for hours. Upon reading thousands of excerpts from famous aviators, studying for hours, and just thinking for days, I finally came up with it -that tag line that would fuel my passion even further. 

"Flying is freedom and freedom is flight."
​-Jetta

While it seems like maybe a cheesy back line to a romantic movie where the pilot is desperately in love with the sky, this line has thousands of hours behind it infused with my deep passion. The one thing that lit my spark, the one thing that called me home, and the one thing that kept me going: aviation. At last, maybe this is a 'cheesy' romantic story where the pilot is deeply in love with the sky, but without a doubt in my mind, flying is indefinitely, always, and forever, purely, and forever more... freedom.