Island

The majority of the time, I'm totally cool with not really having any friends besides my best friend, Jenny. But, I have to admit, there are times when it makes me really sad (and lonely) to think that, with VERY few exceptions, the only texts/phone calls/e-mails I get are from Jen. I'm not fishing for sympathy or whatever; I'm just having one of those moments and thought I'd put it in writing. So there you go.

It's Over!!!!!!!!!!

As every one already knows, I passed my commercial check ride on Thursday. The really cool part, though, is that during my debriefing my examiner told me, "Overall, you handle the plane well and you have good reactions." I had to ask him specifically for areas in which I could improve, before he said anything less than positive. You know that old saying about getting blood from a turnip? That's usually what it's like trying to get positive feedback from this guy.

One Last Hurdle

So here I am. The oral is over. It's done. There's no more studying and no more feeling guilty for every moment I spend not studying. Now I've just got one last hurdle, one last hoop to jump through, and a journey I started in January of 2005 will be at its end. All I have to do is go fly one last flight with every ounce of skill I've feverishly honed in the last couple weeks. The other day Jen texted me a really fitting quote from her work calendar: "No amount of worry brings security. Let go and let God and just enjoy the ride." So tomorrow that will be my game plan. One last flight. One more time. You can't have any idea what this feels like unless you've been here. But it's absolutely awesome.

It's over!!! After a very shaky start, I managed to pull off a decent oral exam. Since it was dark when we finished, I couldn't do the flight portion of the exam last night (we were expecting this, though), so I'll be finishing up on Thursday. I've got my letter of discontinuance, saying I successfully completed the oral, so I just have to knock out a decent flight on Thursday after class, and I'm a commercial pilot! Thank you to everyone who prayed and/or sent along encouraging words. I really appreciate all the support.

3:40. Examiner out smoking. Waiting for exam to start. Panicking. IBS going into overdrive. Longing to just fall into bed and actually get some sleep. Wanted to share my experience with you all.

It's funny how, when stuff is going on in your life, you can get so focused on yourself that you become your entire universe. And then you find out what's going on in someone else's life, and suddenly your issues really don't seem that major. At least that's how it works in my life.

Holy Smokes!!!

My commercial certificate check ride is Tuesday/Wednesday of next week. I've flown 9 times since Monday morning in preparation. That's a lot of flying. I was supposed to fly again right now, but I'm so tired and Belinda assured me I'm ready for the test. On Monday, I will spend my lunch break doing a mock oral exam with Belinda, and when class is done for the day I'll go out and fly a mock check ride, just to make absolutely certain I'm ready. I really need to get this check ride behind me so I can start studying for my AMT oral and practical exams in March.