jtrain609
Antisocial Monster
I'm bailing on this new flight instructor gig I just started in New Jersey.
Now a bunch of you have got to be scratching your heads and thinking, “What do you mean!? That's a dream job! You get to fly for a living! And one of the instructors just got another job so you'll get all his students and you won't have to starve! How could you possibly throw all that away!”
Where do I even begin. How about when I wanted to start doing this flying thing.
Like many people, I have always wanted to fly as much as I possibly could. That meant that I would fly for a living, spending as much time as I possibly could in the air. This has been a dream of mine as long as I can remember. In fact I can't remember wanting to do anything else with my life until recently.
So I took all the right steps to make sure that this career would happen. I went to college, got a degree in something other than aviation, did my training at a great school with some cool people, networked my ass off, got my first job because of Seggy on this website (who I met at NetworkJC 2004). Pretty stock eh?
I used to think that flying for a living was just a job, something you did to make money and find personal enjoyment. But then I realized that what the guys that have “made it” on this site have been saying all along is all too true; this isn't a career, it's a lifestyle. That lifestyle means you will be dirt poor for a long, long time, you will spend countless nights away from home, sleeping in a crashpad with eight other guys for half of the month. It means you don't know how you'll pay rent or that loan you took out to do your flight training (and I hope you didn't take our loans for college either). It means that if you're like me and you're into piercings and dying your hair weird colors, you'd better find a different line of work. It also means that while you're out on the road and pursuing this “dream,” you can be neglecting your significant other who has to put up with all this crap. Do that long enough and you lose those people.
Flying for a living also means that you get to spend a lot of time in airplanes, which I think we can all agree is great. You get to fly fast equipment eventually and you'll be able to do all the fun things that pilots like to do such as low approaches in crap weather and troubleshooting your way around weather (which I alway thought was a good time).
So truth be told, there are a lot of pluses and minuses to this career. I am personally starting to realize that, for me, the minuses are starting to outweigh the pluses. This has come because of a realization that I've had recently which happened because of an unfortunate course of events (which I caused because I was so bent on getting trained and into this career). While I'm not too interested in discussing my personal life on the forum, suffice it to say I made a lot of sacrifices in other aspects of my life to make this flying thing happen and long story short, I am not very happy with the outcome of events. This has forced me recently to re-evaluate my career aspirations, lifestyle aspirations and personal aspirations and what I'm coming out to is a realization that flying for a living is not for me. It's taken me a few months of thinking about this, but it really hit me the other night (hence, you're reading this post) with as to what the proper course of action for me to take is.
I quite honestly never thought I'd be in this position, writing this post, bailing on this job and going back home with my tail between my legs (especially after only being here a week), but I've been thinking about this long and hard for a few months now (though it has only now become obvious what I need to do). Another thing that has really kicked me in the butt was a conversation I had with a very good friend who I stopped to see on my way out here. We trained together at Skymates and we both have come to the conclusion that this career isn't something either of us want to retire from. For us it's simply not worth it. This is something that, for us, is a lot of fun while we're young, but it's not in the cards for us to continue to do it for the rest of our lives. That conversation really drove home for me the fact that it's alright to not want this as much as the next guy. In fact a lot of people are trying to talk me out of this, saying that things will get better. But that's not it, things are great! In fact I couldn't ask for a better opportunity, but it's just not for me. I'll certainly continue to instruct, but I'm taking myself off the career track. I can still get my flying fix by flying Champs around the pattern on the weekends, and I don't need to fly for a living to do that.
There was a point in my life that I thought to myself, “I'll give up whatever I have to so that this will work. It doesn't matter how many lives I ruin or marriages I eventually go through, it'll be worth it.” But that's not me anymore. A lot of things that have happened to me recently have made me grow up and realize that this lifestyle isn't for me and I know there are 20 guys lined up behind me that I want my job. They can have it. In fact the people here are GREAT people. The FBO is sweet, the airport is cool enough, it's near the beach and the planes are safe. How could anybody ask for anything more?
I could, and I'm alright with that. Priorities change and it's a fact of life. So now my plans are to go home, find a flight instructing gig to get me by for a little while, make some money and enroll in a graduate program here soon. In fact I'd stick around here but the graduate program I'm looking at is back in Michigan and I don't want to lose my Michigan residency. I'm either going to pursue a masters degree in philosophy or go to law school. I've realized after being out of school for more than few days that we got on breaks that I really enjoy having myself challenged academically. Further, I'm VERY interested in constitutional law and the preservation of civil liberties as enumerated through our constitution. Pursing that avenue is going to do a lot more good for the world, in my opinion, than flying Joe Six Pack from Chicago to Kalamazoo five times a day.
So there you have it folks, another one bites the dust. I'm not bailing on this forum, and I'm not bailing on aviation (I'm going to need to pay the bills somehow, and all I know how to do right now is flying, hence I've gotta do it in some capacity for a little while), but the career is over for me just as it got started. In fact getting my tailwheel endorsement and teaching in those things sounds like a great idea, as to me that's where the real flying is still at.
I'm positive a bunch of ya'll young guys are thinking, “You're crazy! I'd kill to be in your shoes and FLY AIRPLANES FOR A LIVING!” Take it kids, but I must warn you this career isn't for everybody. For some people, they'll love it. For others, they'll hate it. I've just realized very early on that it isn't going to provide for me what I want out of life, which is kind of the point of living eh? And further if you decide to change your mind, be alright with it. The hardest thing about this for me is admitting to myself that it's the proper path to take, because I'm one stubborn SOB.
One final thing I do want to make sure I accomplish is to thank everybody at this site for everything they've done for me. Pilot602 got me here from studentpilot.com, Doug and Kristie have helped so much with setting up things like NJC, Seggy for getting me this gig (who I met at NJC) and all the other people that I've met and hung out with from this site, there are too many of ya'll to list. I can't thank everybody enough because without the help and advice I've received here I would have gone anywhere with this gig.
Now a bunch of you have got to be scratching your heads and thinking, “What do you mean!? That's a dream job! You get to fly for a living! And one of the instructors just got another job so you'll get all his students and you won't have to starve! How could you possibly throw all that away!”
Where do I even begin. How about when I wanted to start doing this flying thing.
Like many people, I have always wanted to fly as much as I possibly could. That meant that I would fly for a living, spending as much time as I possibly could in the air. This has been a dream of mine as long as I can remember. In fact I can't remember wanting to do anything else with my life until recently.
So I took all the right steps to make sure that this career would happen. I went to college, got a degree in something other than aviation, did my training at a great school with some cool people, networked my ass off, got my first job because of Seggy on this website (who I met at NetworkJC 2004). Pretty stock eh?
I used to think that flying for a living was just a job, something you did to make money and find personal enjoyment. But then I realized that what the guys that have “made it” on this site have been saying all along is all too true; this isn't a career, it's a lifestyle. That lifestyle means you will be dirt poor for a long, long time, you will spend countless nights away from home, sleeping in a crashpad with eight other guys for half of the month. It means you don't know how you'll pay rent or that loan you took out to do your flight training (and I hope you didn't take our loans for college either). It means that if you're like me and you're into piercings and dying your hair weird colors, you'd better find a different line of work. It also means that while you're out on the road and pursuing this “dream,” you can be neglecting your significant other who has to put up with all this crap. Do that long enough and you lose those people.
Flying for a living also means that you get to spend a lot of time in airplanes, which I think we can all agree is great. You get to fly fast equipment eventually and you'll be able to do all the fun things that pilots like to do such as low approaches in crap weather and troubleshooting your way around weather (which I alway thought was a good time).
So truth be told, there are a lot of pluses and minuses to this career. I am personally starting to realize that, for me, the minuses are starting to outweigh the pluses. This has come because of a realization that I've had recently which happened because of an unfortunate course of events (which I caused because I was so bent on getting trained and into this career). While I'm not too interested in discussing my personal life on the forum, suffice it to say I made a lot of sacrifices in other aspects of my life to make this flying thing happen and long story short, I am not very happy with the outcome of events. This has forced me recently to re-evaluate my career aspirations, lifestyle aspirations and personal aspirations and what I'm coming out to is a realization that flying for a living is not for me. It's taken me a few months of thinking about this, but it really hit me the other night (hence, you're reading this post) with as to what the proper course of action for me to take is.
I quite honestly never thought I'd be in this position, writing this post, bailing on this job and going back home with my tail between my legs (especially after only being here a week), but I've been thinking about this long and hard for a few months now (though it has only now become obvious what I need to do). Another thing that has really kicked me in the butt was a conversation I had with a very good friend who I stopped to see on my way out here. We trained together at Skymates and we both have come to the conclusion that this career isn't something either of us want to retire from. For us it's simply not worth it. This is something that, for us, is a lot of fun while we're young, but it's not in the cards for us to continue to do it for the rest of our lives. That conversation really drove home for me the fact that it's alright to not want this as much as the next guy. In fact a lot of people are trying to talk me out of this, saying that things will get better. But that's not it, things are great! In fact I couldn't ask for a better opportunity, but it's just not for me. I'll certainly continue to instruct, but I'm taking myself off the career track. I can still get my flying fix by flying Champs around the pattern on the weekends, and I don't need to fly for a living to do that.
There was a point in my life that I thought to myself, “I'll give up whatever I have to so that this will work. It doesn't matter how many lives I ruin or marriages I eventually go through, it'll be worth it.” But that's not me anymore. A lot of things that have happened to me recently have made me grow up and realize that this lifestyle isn't for me and I know there are 20 guys lined up behind me that I want my job. They can have it. In fact the people here are GREAT people. The FBO is sweet, the airport is cool enough, it's near the beach and the planes are safe. How could anybody ask for anything more?
I could, and I'm alright with that. Priorities change and it's a fact of life. So now my plans are to go home, find a flight instructing gig to get me by for a little while, make some money and enroll in a graduate program here soon. In fact I'd stick around here but the graduate program I'm looking at is back in Michigan and I don't want to lose my Michigan residency. I'm either going to pursue a masters degree in philosophy or go to law school. I've realized after being out of school for more than few days that we got on breaks that I really enjoy having myself challenged academically. Further, I'm VERY interested in constitutional law and the preservation of civil liberties as enumerated through our constitution. Pursing that avenue is going to do a lot more good for the world, in my opinion, than flying Joe Six Pack from Chicago to Kalamazoo five times a day.
So there you have it folks, another one bites the dust. I'm not bailing on this forum, and I'm not bailing on aviation (I'm going to need to pay the bills somehow, and all I know how to do right now is flying, hence I've gotta do it in some capacity for a little while), but the career is over for me just as it got started. In fact getting my tailwheel endorsement and teaching in those things sounds like a great idea, as to me that's where the real flying is still at.
I'm positive a bunch of ya'll young guys are thinking, “You're crazy! I'd kill to be in your shoes and FLY AIRPLANES FOR A LIVING!” Take it kids, but I must warn you this career isn't for everybody. For some people, they'll love it. For others, they'll hate it. I've just realized very early on that it isn't going to provide for me what I want out of life, which is kind of the point of living eh? And further if you decide to change your mind, be alright with it. The hardest thing about this for me is admitting to myself that it's the proper path to take, because I'm one stubborn SOB.
One final thing I do want to make sure I accomplish is to thank everybody at this site for everything they've done for me. Pilot602 got me here from studentpilot.com, Doug and Kristie have helped so much with setting up things like NJC, Seggy for getting me this gig (who I met at NJC) and all the other people that I've met and hung out with from this site, there are too many of ya'll to list. I can't thank everybody enough because without the help and advice I've received here I would have gone anywhere with this gig.
