Confessions of an aspiring pilot.

The starting point of my memoir..unedited version.




Growing up I had a hard time adjusting socially around people. I always felt awkward around people. I felt that I was never good enough and I lacked self-confidence. There was a deep need within myself to “help” people but I never really helped myself when I needed to the most. I want you to come on this journey with me as I tell you about myself. If you truly believe in something you want out of life anything is possible. If you keep chipping away slowly at the wall, soon enough the wall will crumble. This memoir is about my life as a human and my life as an aspiring pilot and the struggles that fall in between. As a teenager I found myself in and out of what I called depression. I was unhappy with the way I looked. I was unhappy the lack of friends I had. I lived my life through other people. I struggled to make friends in middle school and high school but my shyness wasn’t allowing me to seek the right type of friendships I needed. I compared myself to my siblings and wanted the life they had more than they could imagine. I worried like every other kid who felt the way I did. Through middle school I felt out of place. I got picked on, and laughed at all the time. I kept telling myself that it wouldn’t be like this forever. Nothing in life stays the same. Change will happen if you like it or not, its something that you cant predict. Its something in my life that I have to constantly remind myself every day. I once had a dream when I was just a little kid, that dream was to become a pilot. The Dream turned into a reality when I was 15 years old and was introduced to something that changed my life in so many ways. At that time, I had no idea what I was getting myself into. I just thought I was going to take a few flying lessons to see if I enjoyed it or not. Boy, was I wrong. Flying an airplane is truly addicting. Pushing the throttle forward as you roll down the runway truly gives you that “free” feeling. Knowing within moments you will be fighting gravity, something that many people have a hard concept to grasp. As I write this memoir, I hope I will be able to express those thoughts and feelings in a way that will give you hope to achieve your own personal goals you have for yourself. Flying an airplane is something the majority of the population often wonders what it would be like. The sounds, the sights, smells and the challenge can change the way someone views the world itself. It defines you as a person. It separates you from the major of the population. You stand out when you tell people what type of career you are in.

You could call me lucky, persistent, or blessed, depending on how you want to look at it. Having faith in something even if you don’t know the outcome will test you and challenge you but if you truly want it, it will be worth the entire wait. I was born into aviation. Airplanes and aviation was something that was in my family. My dad has a long history with airplanes that goes back before I was born. At one point my Dad was a professional pilot. I remember him telling me stories when I was younger about flying over Lake Erie in the dead of winter in an old Beech18 in the middle of the night delivering freight. His route was from Youngstown, Ohio to Detroit, Michigan back to Youngstown while everyone else was sleeping. I have very fond memories growing up around airplanes. I knew right after my introduction lesson that I had a new appreciation towards life and also a new addiction that changed my perspective on how I viewed myself and the world in itself, flying soon would give me the confidence in myself that I was constantly seeking as a teenager. It made me “Stand” out in high school. I was referred as the kid who was taking flying lessons. One memory that stands out is when I was just a kid of eating breakfast out at the airport diner at the Wayne county airport with my dad and twin brother. Every Saturday morning my dad would take both my brother and I out to the airplane so we could watch airplanes take off and land.