Originally Posted by
tomgoodman
Sky,
They mean just what they say, and so will you when you are an old man. Love cannot be turned on at will, like a faucet, and nearly all youthful dreams appear "crazy" to non-believers.
And very few of them will regret their years playing baseball, no matter what they do later. If your advice is "never play the game too long", I agree. If you are saying "don't even try it", I disagree. Had someone talked you out of giving the airlines a shot, you would regret it forever, because you would never know.
I wish someone had given me an honest view of the airlines. My expectations were that aviation was like any other industry in that if you tried hard and were better than the next guy that you would prosper. It never occurred to me that something that demand so much would be such a long shot.
Had I known the truth I would never had taken lesson one. In no way did I want to risk poverty, humiliation and the loss of so much control over my life. I had to pay for my education and training myself. There were no loans for flight training. I wasted much of my youth working in gas stations and mowing lawns in order to get my chance. I was making an investment into my future.
There are a lot of things in life that are worth giving a try. Playing baseball is not going to endanger your life nor will it cost you a fortune for your chance. Standing in line all day for a shot at American Idol is not that costly. Aviation demands too much for too little.
Skyhigh