Life Can Be Awesome

I just finished reading a book.  It's no-longer groundbreaking that I read a book but there was a time I didn't read too much.  However, it's the book I read that made me think.  I read 'The Book of Awesome' by Neil Pasricha.  It was loaned to be. It was so good I stopped reading it a couple of times to leave some more awesome to read.


The whole book is short antidotes of the everyday things in life that are truly awesome.


Yesterday I was out flying. Those who know me are probably not too surprised. I was even flying in the glider yesterday. Including yesterday's flights I have logged 2625 glider flights. Last year consisted of 7 of those flights.  Yes, it was a single digit year. With a combination of circumstances I just didn't spend a lot of time in the glider. Flying without an engine yesterday made me realize again how much I enjoy not having to worry about an engine failure, or the batteries in the noise cancelling headset dying or watching how much fuel is in the tank.


As I was finishing The Book of Awesome this morning and reflecting on my day of flying yesterday, I started thinking about what was the most awesome flying moment in my mind.  There are some pretty cool times I have had above the ground. I have taken my parents flying. I  have flown in an open cockpit bi-plane. I have learned to land a tail-dragger. I have a lot more moments.  I also have a lot of flights that were just like the other and I really don't remember.


However, the moment that stays with me is my first solo in a glider.


There are a lot of things that made this awesome. It was the first time I left the earth by myself in any type of flying machine and returned safely. That in itself makes it awesome but that's only part of it.  I had some difficulty learning to fly. I could do everything but lacked some consistency. The weather in central Alberta in 1993 was not very conducive for glider instruction. There was a lot of time sitting on the ground waiting. It was start and stop and often there wasn't much of a horizon. The course quickly became the biggest challenge I had ever faced. Then, on the first flight of the morning for glider C-GMOG with the Chief Flying Instructor in the back seat, I finally put it all together and they let me go on my own. I remember everything. The weather was grey and damp. The tow plane signaller waved to me. I initially got a bit high on the towplane but everything settled in. I sang a bit of 'Kickstart my Heart' as I flew and I landed exactly where I was supposed to. Once I flew that flight I had no difficulty with the rest of the course, I breezed through the remaining 19 solo flights and passed the flight test.


Looking at that moment its easy to see why it should be awesome. I was 16 and flew by myself but that's not the most awesome part. What really made that moment awesome, and I realized this very quickly afterward, is I discovered that I control how well I do. It's up to me to decide if I am successful or if I fail and in that moment on August 2, 1993 I woke up way too early, rode a bus to the Innifail Airfield and would not accept myself to fail, and I didn't. 


Carrying that with me through life is AWESOME.