Ever since I was a
little kid I have wanted to be a pilot. I remember looking up at the sky every
time I heard an airplane fly over, always eager to get a good look at it. Now,
I’m making my dream come true by majoring in aviation at Oklahoma State. Every
day I get to fly airplanes. It’s really a dream come true. If you ask any professional
pilot, you’ll find that almost all of them have had the same childhood dreams
of being a pilot. Contrary to popular belief, airline pilots don’t live a
particularly glamorous life. In fact, for the first 3 to 4 years of their
career, the average airline pilot actually qualifies for food stamps. If you
combine that low salary with the consistent travel, it makes for a really tough
life to live. These first few years are often called “paying your dues” within
the pilot community. After you make it through your first few years as an
airline pilot, the quality of life and pay increase exponentially.
However,
I think that this tough life makes the Professional Pilot major even better.
The students in the major have to really love what they do in order to be
willing to put up with the poor quality of life, even if it’s only for a few years.
It’s really fun to have classes with the same group of dedicated individuals
every semester. What better way to go through college than doing something you
love with people who share that passion with you? There’s not one, if you ask
me.
My brother is majoring in professional pilot as well! I believe he has about a year left, he absolutely loves everything about it!
ReplyDeleteThis sounds like a fun major, Hayes! I've known a few pilots, and they seem to really like the traveling and the security of their jobs now that they've been in the profession for a while. For your research project this semester, you should think about what types of issues pilots must deal with. For example you could explore the effects of 9/11 on pilots. In this type of paper, you would research statistics about security and explore what has changed for pilots' routines now that there is all this extra caution. You could also do something where you compare the quality of airline travel in the past 40 or so years. I hear from a lot of 40 and 50 year-olds that flying is not as fun or relaxing as it used to be. It would make an interesting paper to explore some of the causes of this shift. Anyway, these are just a few things to think about as you begin narrowing down your focus for the research project.
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