Back to the days of being a toddler, my parents always thought it was cute that I could name cars by their insignia and design or talk incessantly about airplanes till I drove them totally nuts. My love for transportation was bred into me from the beginning and its never yielded and I honestly can’t tell you where and how it found me. The need to understand the inner workings of a fuel injected engine or the way a plane can stay off the ground for so long has been long standing. More than just engineering and aerodynamics, I’ve always lived in wonderment of how airlines serve customers and how automobile manufacturers make a product that is more pleasing on the inside than the outside (when we drive cars, we don’t look at them, we drive them).

From a very young age, I have always dreamed of being able to fly planes just as much as I could drive cool cars. As a teenager, my weekends when I was finished with homework were filled with planning flights on my flight simulator among many things. My friends would join and we’d use our flight sim, envision real world scenarios, and then fly them. It was a blast. All of us always asked, what would it be like to really fly some day? One of my friends, Luke Outwater, now serves in our armed services and flies fighters. I’m honored to know him and salute his service to our country. The rest of us until this week have not flown.

My need to fly has grown exponentially over time and I’m here to say that after many exhaustive hours of study and tons of real flight hours, I am now a private pilot. I had the blessing of flying in both the UK and the US in preparation for my first pilot’s license. My dream of getting up in the sky and learning the craft and art of flight has been realized, at its first stage. What I knew when I was a flight sim wiz as a kid significantly helped my capacity to learn the process of flight and gave me a base understanding of the instruments and controls in a plane but nothing can prepare anyone for actually flying a plane itself.

Over these last many months, I’ve spent multiple hours in the sky, during day or night, learning how to safely maneuver, how to navigate, and how to really understand the flow of weather, something essential to safe flight. I have gotten the joy of going up in the sky as a solo pilot and experiencing the total euphoria of flying alone, whether over the sea near Glyndebourne, the Pacific in San Francisco, the Gulf in Florida, or the Atlantic in New Jersey. I’ve learned from great instructors who also share the love of flight and have instilled in me the desire to even aim higher than I do today, in all forms.

Flying a plane for me isn’t just about the exacting action of driving some sort of equipment up in the sky; it’s about release and letting the mind free. Flying has given me a new freedom that has taught me to consider even more strongly to enjoy all the elements of life, which include taking time to study in depth a new craft in the pursuit of greatness and concurrently, further pressed me forward in seeking the truth in the art with which I serve every day. You see, making beautiful music ought to come from a place of clear headed peace. Yet, as musicians, there are times that we catch ourselves tormented, frustrated, and seeking perfection at the behest of joy. Without joy, we lose our ability to communicate the maximum quantity of great music to those who desire it most and those who need it most. I encourage my friends to continually seek the pathways that reinforce joy in their lives and allow oneself to remember that whichever pathway is in your stead, success is derived most quickly when the mind is free and the spirit is uplifted. From flying, I have found even more meaning to an already wonderful life path of offering my voice to you all. Upwards and onwards.