The Dirty 30 and a Few Goals

Last week came the day I had been dreading for the better part of a year, my thirtieth birthday.  The night before my birthday I lay awake late into the night wondering what it would be like to no longer be in my twenties.  The thought of my youth slipping away was an uneasy feeling as I pictured my face becoming wrinkled and my knees going bad somewhere in the course of the night after I fell asleep. Somehow my mind drifted to flying and I began thinking of what I had accomplished during my twenties. 

When I was twenty, I sat at Air Venture 2003 and watched the different performers loop and twist around the airfield. I had always thought I would quickly get my pilots license once I turned sixteen. As a boy I was practically obsessed with anything that flew and would jump at the chance to go flying with my father in his Taylorcraft any chance I could.  But as my sixteenth birthday approached, the hectic life of a teenager pushed my pursuit of flying aside. Sports, friends and other activities took priority in my life. Though I still loved to go flying with my father, I was not ready to pursue my license. 

                High school was over quickly and I was off to college. I still loved the idea of flying but had no ability to pursue it with the cost of flying.  The summer before my junior year of college began my family drove their RV camper to my college campus and picked me up so we could make another journey to Oshkosh, Wisconsin. This was to be our family’s third visit to Air Venture and we were excited to be going back. Sitting on the grass each day watching the performers I began to realize I was now twenty years old and had not yet accomplished a goal I had set as a young boy, my pilot’s license. I told my father that week I was going to figure out a way to go after my private pilot’s license.  Not only was I going to become a private pilot, I wanted to figure out a way to make flying my profession.  I had held several jobs at this point working through college and had come to the realization I had no desire to have a career working a job I could not stand. I wanted to make sure if I was going to spend the majority of my time working, I wanted a career I enjoyed. So right there on the flight line of Air Venture I set goals of becoming a professional pilot.

                Almost exactly one year later I received my private pilot’s license. In 2010 I was winged a Naval Aviator.  Finally in the fall of 2012 I was upgraded to aircraft commander of the KC-130J Hercules. My goal took ten years to accomplish but I managed to go from a young man dreaming of flying to a professional pilot.

                Laying in bed, with the minutes ticking closer to my thirtieth birthday, I began to think of new long term goals I could set. I have had several big ideas floating in my head for several years now.  So on the morning of my thirtieth birthday I wrote down all of my new goals.  We will see how the next ten years plays out.

What goals do you have? Feel free to share them in the comments.