At age 27 I moved into my first solo apartment and bought the book:  You Can Do It!: the merit badge handbook for grown-up girls, an inspirational guide for young women consisting of badges earned for learning new skills from DIY home improvements to building a website (pre Wix and WordPress.) I guess I was feeling a lack of accomplishment outside of work and needed a bit of a push.  One badge in particular caught my imagination: ‘Fly Solo’ page 72.  I’ve always harbored a particular affinity for flight, small airplanes, and the wind.  One of my favorite cinematic opening scenes is a yellow bi-winged plane with an open cockpit flying just ahead of its small shadow over the Saharan desert, just before it’s shot down in the English Patient. My father was a pilot when he was in his late 20s, a fact I admired, and if he could do it, why couldn’t I?  I earmarked the page and found a small airport south of town where a female pilot gave flying lessons. Jen and her husband Tom invited me down for their ritual Success Aviation Sunday morning pancake breakfast to learn more, and I left purchasing flight books and signing up for my first lesson.

The early morning drives to the hangar, renewed me: hot coffee and the open road with the windows down.  It felt great to have a new routine.  My aircraft was a little cherry red and white low-winged plane, just big enough for two people to fit shoulder to shoulder.  I loved this little craft and it brought a big smile to my face every time I saw her perched and glinting in the sun, ready to fly. My instructor and I spent the first 30 minutes reviewing flight mechanics, terminology, and going over the day’s lesson before the pre-flight inspection, scanning for any signs of concern on the plane’s body such as missing screws, cracks or leaks. Then we’d climb aboard, fasten our safety belts and headsets, and close the glass lid over our heads. We’d bring our bird to life by cranking the engine, enriching the fuel, and checking the monitors for vital signs.  When all systems were clear, I’d maneuver the plane to take-off position, steering awkwardly with both feet peddles to the end of the run-way.

The exhilaration of lift off never got old, accelerating down the yellow midline as the concrete on either side smeared to a dizzy blur.  In the moment of lift off you can almost feel the weight of your encumbered mind drop away, left on the ground. Up in the sky at cruising altitude I felt perfectly calm and at home.  At a mere 1000 feet elevation—suitable for our small and unpressurized craft— I could survey the landscape from a totally different perspective, one that particularly suited and interested me as a landscape architect. Sometimes we would fly towards the Gulf over the dendritic patterns of the coastal estuaries and brackish marshlands. As a visual vs. instrument pilot, I was only permitted to fly in clear weather conditions which meant no dashing in and out of clouds or flying at low visibility.  The humid Gulf is constantly churning out clouds….the ones I blamed for the daily afternoon downpours like summer clock work. Technically, I was not allowed to fly through these clouds, but what joy I found bobbing and weaving around them.  

I felt free up there, cruising through the sky in my little red-winged bird.  After every flight lesson I’d find myself speeding well beyond the limit home on the interstate, still high from the experience. Although I never completed my pilots license (and was in fact only a few hours away from soloing), it is hands down one of the most successful and valuable hobbies I ever took up.  I credit learning to fly for the enormous boost I needed to change my life; to leave my job and move to a different part of the country. My horizons expanded on multiple levels.  I was more confident and literally bursting at the seams to make a better life for myself, a life of adventure and authenticity.  I felt alive.  Something which had been lying dormant inside of me had warmed and cracked open and was now unfurling into the sunlight and air.  My new dreams had taken flight.

What about you? (Writing Prompts)

• What’s something that you started and never finished but that gave you a brand new perspective or inspiration?
• Is their a hobby or interest that you’ve always been curious about?
• What’s one step you can take today or this week to learn more about how to get started?