Keep Dreaming!

I have soooo fallen back with my writing and the challenges I undertook. But what I have been doing is getting a little bit more active and stepping out of the house more frequently. However each time I step out I come back thoroughly exhausted and sometimes in more pain than before having gone out for the day. Even so I'm just happy for getting a little bit more back to me.

On my last post I mentioned that I was planning to treat myself to something cool. Well I didn't report it on time because I changed my mind for a minute when I was told that a new feature would be added within the next week or so. I tried waiting for this to be implemented, but couldn't take it and decided to go for it anyways.

My indulgence was a 45min session on a flight simulator where I piloted a Boeing 737. This was important to me because as a child from as young as 5 years old, I wanted to be pilot (well actually an astronaut, but I didn't share that desire for fear of ridicule), but was told it would be impossible because of my health. The next best thing for me was to become an air traffic controller, but was told that was also an impossibility. Years later, I became an computer trainer, then eventually an author. A far cry from my original dream, right?

On one of my errand runs, I came across a storefront offering flight simulations and though I initially walked straight past, my soul did a double take and next thing I know I was having a chin-wag with a pilot about the possibility of pursuing the path to earning myself a pilot license. During our conversation we discussed how realistic the simulator is to being in a real cockpit, and truth be told, I was already sold, but then the pilot (real pilots work there), shared with me that they would soon be installing a camera so that the session could be recorded as a momento that could be taken home after the experience. So last week I went in to check if the camera had arrived, but even though it hadn't, I couldn't wait any longer, I just wanted to jump on into that seat!

Yesterday I 'flew and landed' on the runways of London Heathrow Airport, Georgia's Hartsfield Airport and Montego Bay. Woooooooo!!!! IT WAS THE BEST FEELING EVER!!! Yes it was expensive, but to me so damn worth it. It was like living a lifelong dream. No don't get me wrong all them switches, buttons and screens were a little overwhelming, but so much fun. Give me a minute to get a little more money together and I will be there again in a heartbeat, because it is amazing just how realistic it all was. As I was descending and approaching Hartsfield, I actually felt my stomach flutter and ears pop and I wasn't even in a real plane, but my brain made it real enough for my body to respond accordingly.

I'm saying people, no matter what it is you've always wanted to do and was told you couldn't, even if it is due to ill health, financial circumstance, the first thing you can do to make it happen is acknowledge the widening horizon of opportunities around you. Yesterday I didn't fly a real plane, but I set something in motion for myself and most importantly I let go of a regret and proved to myself that actually my becoming a pilot isn't impossible. I might not find myself becoming a commercial pilot, but the health restrictions on a private license aren't as demanding and may indeed allow me to seriously pursue that dream.