A Chick in the Cockpit Read Free Page B

on the map, I had the beginnings of a low level fear that I wasn’t where I thought I should be.
    Fear turned into panic when I saw another town coming up that wasn’t on the map. But then I realized I had enormous checkpoints all along my route that I had ignored—water towers! The Midwest landscape is dotted with giant water towers with the name of the town emblazoned around the top. Duh, the answers had been reaching up to me all along.
    I swooped down and circled over the top of the water tower and read the name. Holy crap, I’d never even heard of it. While I flattened out my sectional map, my eyes strained to read the names of all the little towns along the route where I was supposed to be. I simultaneously rejoiced and freaked out when I realized where I was. I was about thirty miles south of my course, but now that I knew where I was, I could fix it. Talk about failing to take in all the information at hand!
    That night, when I had the comfort of earth holding me up, I tried to pinpoint where my flightpath went astray. It was possible that the winds weren’t exactly as forecast, and I think my compass might have been just a bit off, but the primary problem was that I was making the things I saw fit into my predefined idea of where I should be. Even though it didn’t look right, I made it fit my idea.
    Along everyone’s flight path, no matter how much you’ve planned and prepared, it’s important to remember to take a closer look at your checkpoints and acknowledge what you actually see, not see what you think. We have checklists we create throughout our lives, but too often, we’re checking off the boxes and not taking into account the reality around us.
    It wouldn’t be the last time my flight path would go astray.
    I started making standard checklists to keep my thoughts on a chosen path before I even started school. “When I grow up I’m going to be a mom, and I’m going to have four kids (two girls and two boys, of course), two dogs, and a cat. I’m going to live in a blue house with white shutters in the mountains, on a lake, close to the ocean...”
    As I moved through life, I modified my checklists because the world started telling me what to do. Oh, I felt like I was in control because, hey, I have a checklist. But the reality is that I was changing my list to fit what was already happening. I mean, really—who has on their checklist that when they grow up they’ll lose their career to a dysfunctional relationship and go through a divorce?
    My childhood checklist had no mention of being a pilot. I was going to be a veterinarian. I love animals and all things innocent, so naturally I leaned towards working with animals, without realizing that vet school isn’t about cuddling furry creatures; it’s about dissections, biology, and chemistry. I was chubby, stuttered, had a lisp, and was intensely quiet as a child, so I figured working with animals would be the best path through life, since they wouldn’t have an opinion about my gawkiness.
    My childhood checkpoints included crossings that many kids must navigate through. My parents divorced when I was nine, I grew up with a stressed-out single mom and an absent father, and I found out my sister and I were adopted, which would affect and clarify my future checklists. Finding out I was adopted didn’t necessarily change my path, but it made me more observant along the way. It dawned on me that I’d been an off-course checkpoint for someone else, and that they had the choice to fly a different path by giving me up for adoption. My ability to be on earth had been debated, so I thank my birthmother for her choice. It’s a harder decision than I’ve ever had to make, so I’ve tried to live like this is my second chance at life.
    As an adopted child, I was intrigued with the distinguishing characteristics of human nature and what influence family, culture, society, or