Pilot Training

What happens if we delay learning something? Answer: We delay learning it, or we don’t learn it at all.

The bicycle lady from last time wondered why she left learning to ride until she was sixty. She didn’t regret it, but she knew she’d missed the whole ‘breeze blowing in my face thing.’

Two years into my teaching career, I had an opportunity to join the Australian Air Force. I could enter as an education officer and branch out from there. The advisor I spoke to said I could move into an aircrew.

‘Great!’ I thought. ‘Pilot training is for me.’

I chose to remain a teacher. I glance into the cockpit each time I board a plane to travel somewhere. Occasionally, there’s a delay as the passenger line waits for someone to stow a bag in the overhead locker.

I get a dopamine shot if I have to wait near the cockpit door when it’s open. All those dials, buttons and switches are mesmerising. I will forever wonder about the function of each.

I chose teaching over flying. Why? I guess the passion for flying wasn’t as strong as the passion for teaching.

In other words, the dopamine shots were better on the ground than off it. Like the 60-year-old bicycling lady, I don’t regret the decision.

Who knows, if I’d chosen the pilot training, would I forever wonder about what it was like to switch on small brains?