My secret ambition
I may call my ambition to become a pilot a seven-year old obsession. My parents seem to have decided what my career should be. As I learn more about aircraft I become more and more interested and I believe soon I will have to disappoint my parents.
My parents want me to be something else. They have told me several times that they would like me to take up architecture. But I know that my aptitude is different. My mother was very frightened. she mentioned all the air crashes she had read about and told me that it is a hazardous occupation. My father is not concerned about the hazards and it seems he wants to realize in me an ambition which he had nursed in his youth. My friends seem to think that being a pilot is as good a job as any other, but they wonder if I am suited for it. Some of my friends think that I am only interested in the idea of being a pilot, and have warned me against deceiving myself.
I should think that this idea developed in me when at the age of nine my father took me for a joy ride on a Cessna. I still remember its name – The Sky Hawk. I watched what the pilot did from the time of take-off until landing. I then imagined myself strapped in the cock-pit, handling the controls. When an air show was held. I went everyday of the week to see the demonstrations. It was this air show I believe, that made me more determined. I am a member of the Air-Training Corps. One of my hobbies is building model aircraft, and I have more than a dozen plastic models suspended from the ceiling of my room. I also make aircraft models with balsa wood and paper, and spend hours flying them in the open field next to my house.
I feel that I have the necessary qualities to become a pilot. My little mathematical ability should enable me to study the theoretical part of the pilot’s course. I am in the science stream and the Physics I learn at school will be an advantage. My vision is 6/6 and I am above the average in height. My school has developed in me a sense of responsibility and I am safety-conscious.
I am not sure whether I would like to be a commercial pilot handling passenger aircraft or a fighter-pilot in the air force. Being a commercial pilot has several material advantages. Commercial pilots are very highly paid and are also given many fringe benefits. They can travel to all the cities that their airline serves. If they get tired of one circuit, they can switch to another and visit all the countries in the new itinerary. When out of the country, they are given excellent accommodation and other benefits.
Being a fighter pilot, though it means being paid less and having less material advantages, has its thrills and excitement. Airplanes have always fascinated me and will continue to do so. I find myself thrilled at seeing new engines, and new control systems. I shall be able to take my craft very high and penetrate the atmosphere. I can dive down, make arcs and do a whole lot of other feats which I will not be able to do as a pilot officer of a commercial plane. As a commercial pilot, I would not have as rough a time as a fighter-pilot. Except for a few squalls and fogs and mist, commercial pilots control their aircraft with a certain amount of boredom, and the routine makes their job dull. Fighter-pilots have to keep on testing new techniques.
As other boys of my age, I have also an ambition. The realization of it may not be possible. I have at least the satisfaction of having a goal before me and the desire to reach it will give me sufficient motivation. I hope my ambition will remain a secret in a conventional sense at least
