As long as we can all be nice about it, I need some input.

I got in some minor trouble when I was younger. In the early 90's a DWAI (Driving While Ability Impaired). Not "Drunken Driving" but alcohol related nonetheless. I had two other much smaller 4th degree misdemeanors around the same time. In 2001 I left the occupation I was in based on how unfulfilled it left me feeling. I decided to be an airline pilot. I had to go back to college and do all my flight training, from scratch. I started at age 32. I did well both in college and in flight training. I never failed an FAA written, or check-ride. I graduated with honors from an aviation program. During the process, I worked 30 hours a week, so it took a longer than I'd expected. Finally in 2008 I emerged a shiny new flight instructor, right into the jaws of a ravenous "Great Recession". I was stranded as a flight instructor for almost 4 years.

Late last year I was recruited into a regional airline jet training program. I felt lucky that the airline didn't hold my distant DWAI against me. They said, "That was, what, 2 decades ago??" I felt compelled to divulge it nonetheless. A word of caution to those hoping to out-wait a DWI offense report on your background check; I was lucky I told them because it still appeared on my FBI background check 20 years later.

Training was not easy. It was probably the most difficult thing I'd ever done. At the very end, I washed out of the training program at that regional airline. It wasn't a disaster though. I learned what the word "Anchor" meant when the training staff washed my partner out half way through the sims. They said, "We can tell you're dragging an anchor, so we're going to split you two up." Two days later he was gone. I continued, but it still put me behind. I never really was able to catch up.

As of today, I'm 42 years old and over $110,000 in student loan debt. One of my three student loan lenders sent me a court summons last month. I'm being sued. I was already working against a DWAI from two decades ago. Now on my applications I have to explain that I was "washed out" too. I owned my washout at the only airline interview I've been to since. Still didn't get the call. So much about this occupation has changed since the day I decided to become an airline pilot. Chesly Sullenberger's address to congress very well summarizes it. No need to elaborate. Thundering off to pursue my occupational dreams appears to have very well destroyed my life. If I have to "do something to correct for my washout", I'm done. I'm not going to waste another year of my life flying some light charter op. as a display of punitive penance for my "training sin". I know I'm not broken. My past training record proves that. I know I would kick butt at any training course now, especially if it were on the same type. I need "fast forwards", not "move back two spaces" in my life right now, but they just don't appear to present themselves. Sorry about the violins guys, but properly illustrating my feelings is critical too, I guess.

Sorry about the length of my story. What do you suggest?