:: The Headache Diaries (Retired) ::

:: The Headache Diaries (Retired) ::

:: 5.31.2008 ::

Back Again

Continuing on the topic of civilian avaition education, I want to share another compelling reason as to why I should go into aviation, despite the not so hot outlook of the airline industry (even though Im focused on the airCARGO industry):

I took the Stanford-Binet at age 5 because my parents wanted to see if one of their kids was going to be a money-making genius. I wont tell you what I got but the comment was that I am operating at an 8-year old level, blah blah... anyway, the part of the test I totally rocked into the next dimension was the "Abstract/Visual Reasoning" section. I don't remember the whole test but I remember when I had to replicate patterns with blocks and they kept getting harder and harder until she (or was it a he?) showed me this outrageously difficult pattern that I could do, but I knew would take me like 20 minutes or something. It had like, five colors and a pattern that could only be seen if you looked at it far away. So I was said "ughhh" with a groan and he laughed a bit and put it away. I put my head down and thought "How many of these is (s)he going to make me do???" Needless to say, I scored in the "superior" range. This means I can see stuff really well! LOL! No, but it does mean I'd make a good pilot-y person. Check out this article about spatial ability and what it means. I must say, this is almost completely correct! Now you know why school is boring and TO THIS DAY I have not memorized the multiplication tables.

Just thought I'd share that with you.

:: Jane Dee 2:42:00 AM [+] ::
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हे लूकित! आईएम ट्रांस्लितेरातिंग!

Well anyway, I declare to you on thsi blog that I have reached a decision on a few things.

First of all things is that I picked a school. Two years and 2,500 miles after graduating with the 8-year plan, I have finally declared a major and a school to which I will declare it in. Ready?

School: Air Safety Flight Academy
Location: Glendale/Phoenix, Arizona
Major: Commercial Airline Pilot Option
Start Date: July 14, 2008
Cost: $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ (about $65,000)

Think Im crazy? Let me give you some facts you may not know about moi:

When I was about a sophomore in high school, I started to become interested in astronomy which led me to learn about astronauts. By the next year, I was determined to be an astronaut by enrolling in the USAF and being a pilot, majoring in math or something sciency and applying for an astronaut spot. Well, the first thing I learned was that NASA's "pilots" have a height requirement that is too tall for me. Okay then, maybe, I thought, I could be a mission specialist? Well, okay then, I'd still like to enroll in the air force and be a pilot but to be a mission specialist, you need to be even more sciency, like a PhD in something sciency, not just a air force pilot with a degree. Hmm. Okay sounds okay. On with the plan...

I graduated high school at 17 and the only way I can go to school and fly in the New York City area is to go to the ROTC. Well, okay great, but one problem - my father doesn't want to sign me up. GREAT! Now I have to wait 'till Im 18 and then it will be too late for ROTC so I said "Fine! I'll just sign up for the regular Air Force!!!" In the meantime, I was hating my current school (LIU Brooklyn campus), and looking up requirments for the air force and astronauts. Well, well, little did I know that although my height is okay for a mission specialist, my vision SUCKS! Well, okay I'll just get lasik.... So of course I was spending all my time looking up astronaut stuff instead of Air Force stuff and this caused me to take a very long time to stumble on avery important piece of information: You cannot be a pilot for the USAF if you had corrective surgery on your eyes. They specifically look for the scars.

Although I can't recall the exact words I said when I saw that, but I bet I didn't say much because my mouth was probably 3 feet wide and my eyes were filling with tears. So not only did my piloting and military career go flying out the window (no pun intended), my astronaut future looked really, well, shitty. The only way to be an astronaut now was to go to school for years and years and then apply as a lowly scientist of sorts and hope they call you back. What's wrong with that you ask? Well, I may appear smart and really good at science, but I don't necessarily LIKE it! "WHAT" you say? Maybe YOU go to school for some weird sense of accomplishment, but I only go and do well because it helps you get a job. And it also makes people think you're smart and stuff like that so they don't think you are a loser. If I had no reason to go to school other than to get a job to support myself, do you think I would go? NO! Are you crazy?? School is so boring and not to mention filled with people who believe everything the teacher says. Go ahead, look at my "record" and it will show you that I have been unfairly labeled as a bad kid. Why? Simply because I didn't take crap from teachers. Why else would I leave a fancy (pfft) private school for grades 13 and 14 (aka Kingsborough)? Why else would I "take a break" from school? Because I can't stand it! Why do you think it took me 2+ years to figure out what to do next? Because I don't want to pay $60,000 to go back to "school" to do more boring crap!
(I have felt this way for a while; here is an excerpt from one of my first blog entries: ">>>I got paid and my paycheck did not heal any wounds incurred this week at work, and there were many. It's always pleasing to know that I live in such a nice country that lets me get a career. Unfortunately I am unable to do what I really wanted to do, but well, I can do something just as nice. Can you imagine if I had to work at this place as a permanant job to support myself?!?!?? Oh lordy! I mean, I like working there, but it's too much work for such low wages, and I make more than minimum wage! Sheesh! School, school, school... is there another way? I don't see one.")

Back to what I was saying: my chances of being an astronaut were now about 0.

So what now? I don't know!!! WTF!!! So I can't fly in the AF because Im blind, I cant be an astronaut pilot because Im too short, and my last hope is relying on me doing something really awesome in the field of I-don't-know-what to be a mission specialist or some kind of crew member. Okay so off I went working at a math degree, no wait is it EE, no wait is it physics, no wait is it astronomy, no wait it's none of the above because I SUCK and my home life was becoming a national disaster with each passing day. Although I managed to get my AS degree, getting the BS was going to be harder than I thought between my family, 9/11, my own economic recession, and poor job prospects.

When I started blogging (the excerpt above was taken from an entry on February 7, 2003) I was about to enroll in the Nursing program at Kingsborough. Two days later I blogged about how "...After all this, I may still be able to [sic] joing the US Airforce. The basic training doesn't look THAT bad. However, the simulated sniper thing looks a wee bit intimidating. But only a wee." The conundrum going on was that if I resigned to be a "nurse" I could never be an astronaut because nursing doesnt count on the list of "approved fields of study" that would allow you to apply to be an astronaut. Therefore, I decided that I would still go to the AF anyways and figure out what to do there... maybe as a nurse but more maybe as someone who gets to be near the planes... I took a practice test of the pilot test for the AF and I scored really well. Higher than enough to allow me to be a pilot. However, like I said, I couldn't be a pilot or even a navigator because of my poor eyesight. For many years, I assumed the rigid vision requirements of the military was the same for regular airline pilots not knowing you don't have to have perfect vision to be "just" a commercial airline pilot. (More on that later.)

Instead, I resigned to the crappiness of reality and said "I need to get out of here. I need to get out of my house and far away from certain crazy people." Nursing was supposed to be a way to get out and make money and worry about the other stuff later. What happened was that I had "... to do my boring classwork which I feel is geared towards humans with low IQs, or at least a learning disability." and "My MicroBio prof says "The best way to study is not to open the lab manual while listening to KTU..." My Watered -down-physics/chem-class prof says "What is this?" [referring to a tissue] He says "It's a piece of paper. What is it made from?" A student responds "Tissue!"

I convinced myself that I was doing the nursing thing to make money and that it wasn't so bad. Meanwhile, deep down inside I felt like another loser submitting to the lure of a boring job to make a living. I can go on and on about why nursing is not for me (and why they should stop trying to pretend it is a science). You can read all about that in my archives if you'd like to. BUt to make a long story short, I left the program because that too sucked. Now for the next chapter of my life: Git 'er done (or however you are supposed to say it).

I am more familiar with the last three years of my life only because it is what propelled me to get where I am right now. I put all my wants aside and finished the aptly named BS degree in something easy. So whats not easier than psychology? Will it get me anywhere in life? No. Will it help me write down on applications that I have that degree? Yes. Well, that's all I needed to know. At the same time I started working for Fedex and became curious as to all the really cool-sounding jobs in this "transportation" industry. Oh I see, that's what you call it. Yeah that makes sense given things go from point A to point B. What? you people make how much to do what? Truck drivers make WHAT?? Yeah I could have made the money I make without the BS degree. Why am I not shocked? All the while, secretly dreaming about planes and how cool it is that I work for an airline.

When I moved out here to be a truck driver, I still wished I could have been a pilot. I knew all about the flight schools here in Arizona. I still had that mental block though; it just wasnt possible. Choosing a grad school took so long because I just didnt want to go. What happened was that I thought ASU's logistics program was available part time. It is not and after much research, I would only be able to attend ONLINE school (for the same price) unless I wanted to quit my job. Not likely. So I procrastinated. Who wants to decide which ONLINE SCHOOL they want to go to to do something that isnt exactly what they planned at a very high price? I wanted to use that degree at Fedex. And to be honest, they don't really give a crap about what degree you have. Yeah sure maybe it will get you a job, but knowing someone and investing time in the company matters more. And as it stands, I don't even have enough full-time equivalent years to even be considered. So is it worth it? I don't know. Maybe... maybe not.

My current boyfriend, whom I admire very much, is the one that put me up to this. He too wanted to be a pilot. Maybe not as long as I wanted to be one, but he had attempted it. Anyway, he does not have perfect vision and after seeing me sad one night and after I explained to him a similar story I am writing on here blog, he informed me that you don't need perfect vision to be a commercial pilot, you just have to have it be corrected to 20/20. What? Lucky me, my corrected vision is 20/15... could he be telling the truth???

Yes he was/is. If I go to a civilian school, I only have to have vision that is able to correct to 20/20. I didn't believe it so I went and got a First-Class Flight Physical. This is the physical that would qulaify someone to be a commercial airline pilot. When I passed and she handed me the little card, I was more dumbfounded that I have been so dumb this whole time than over anything else. To make matters even better, my insurance paid for it!

So here I am finally ready to make my deepest dream come true. Fedex even offers tuition reimbursement for pilot school! So when I took those tests that tell you what you should be and "hands-on career" always popped up, I always thought they meant plumber.

Of course, I may not make it and I could do really bad and waste money doing this. The difference is that this is something I really want to do. The school I am going to is the only school that has part time schedules and it fits perfectly around my job so I cant at least support myself in the meantime.

So there you have it decision #1 has finally been decided.

Second of all things is that I am going to move in with my current boyfriend into his HOUSE into my OWN ROOM of course. Any guy that still wants to date me and has read this far into this posting can be assured that I do not plan on breaking up with this person anytime soon, so the best course of action is to look elsewhere. I can also assure the aforementioned guy-looking-get-me that I will not be coaxed nor persuaded to dump the current boyfriend, so don't try.

Thirdly, Im getting tired. See you later when I more decisions to drone on about.

:: Jane Dee 11:39:00 PM [+] ::
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That Last Entry Was Stupid

yea

:: Jane Dee 11:25:00 PM [+] ::
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Hi

Not much going on here. Maybe you'd like to see a video?

:: Jane Dee 2:51:00 AM [+] ::
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