 Post
9/11 pilot
I didn't
walk around
thinking
everybody
is out there
to get me
By Sean Tohidi
December 18, 2003
The Iranian
If you are here to read about injustice and discrimination let
me stop you right now. This is not a story about self pity nor
is it a story about playing one of our favorite games, being the
victim. There will be no conspiracy theories and nobody else will
get blamed for anyone's shortcomings. So if youlike that kind of
stuff just turn around and go read one of those stories that rehash
the 1953 coup for the billionth time.
My story is about dreams
becoming reality. But to tell you the story properly I need to
back up a little. Ever since I was a little boy I dreamed of becoming
a pilot. Well, actually my first dream was to become an astronaut
followed by a fireman and, oh yes, the usual boy dream of becoming
a truck driver! Everything about these professions was just so
cool to a 6-year-old boy.
Being a pilot eventually took over all
the other dreams. I realized early on that being an astronaut was
going to be a bit on the difficult side and a fireman would mean
high temperatures, which I am not very fond of. Needless to say,
becoming a truck driver was just unacceptable to my parents.
So I was lucky enough to know what I wanted to be at a very early
age. When friends and relatives asked me what I wanted to be
when
I grew up, I always answered
without hesitation "I want to be a pilot." Next question was always
the same. "Don't you want to be a doctor like your
dad?"
Well, to tell you the truth, as a boy I liked playing doctor with
girls but that was the extent of my interest in the medical field!
After
some years I eventually stopped running around with my arms extended
pretending
I was an airplane. I stopped trying to make wings out of cardboard boxes.
I stopped
making plans to test my wings by jumping from the roof of my house.
What
did happen to my childhood dream? Same thing that happens to most
childhood dreams.
I grew up! I got busy with the usual grown up dreams like getting girls,
making money and buying a cool car. Even in my thirties, when I
got married and bought
a little house, I knew the dream was still alive somewhere inside of me.
Sometimes I'd find myself staring up at the sky looking for those
little
single engine
planes that took off or landed at the nearby small airport. I always envied
the pilots in those small planes and wished I was in their place. I thought
they
were some of the luckiest people in the world.
My wife introduced the idea
a couple of years ago. She had told me before how she had always wanted
to fly
and we had talked about it many times. It was more like wishful thinking
than serious discussions. But this time we were actually discussing
the possibility.
Flying lessons don't come cheap but this time we were in a position to
consider it.
So we started doing some research and got some brochures
and went online
and looked at different flight schools and chose one that was located
at the nearby Santa Monica Airport. I was very excited about the
whole
thing so I
told a few of my Iranian friends and that's when rain started pouring
on my parade:
- "You're going to do what?"
- "I am going to take flying
lessons."
- "Dude,
did you forget about 9/11?!"
And then the jokes started:
- "Better get a full body shave so you don't look Middle Eastern!"
- "Oh
dude, John Ashcroft will be knocking on your door tomorrow."
- "Better
color your hair blond, wear blue contacts and change your name
to Jimmy Jones!"
- "Ever heard of Guantanimo?"
I actually
got a bit concerned about this. I do look Middle Eastern and we
live in a post
9/11 world. What if I get the dirty looks from people? What if
they ask me those uncomfortable
questions? What if they want to run all kinds of background checks
on me? Not that I have anything to hide, but it would be humiliating!
I decided
that I
would go ahead with my plans and jump off that bridge when I got
to it. I had been
waiting to realize this dream for too long to be discouraged by
all this. So I went to the flight school and signed up. I was very
surprised at how
friendly
and helpful they all were. All my worries melted away and I felt
right at home. I immediately started taking lessons.
I had no idea
it was going
to be so much
fun and at the same time so challenging. There is so much to cover
from aeronautics to avionics and from engines to weather. It was
all pretty
much new to me and
I have to say it was overwhelming. So many lists to check, charts
to navigate, gages to keep an eye on, air traffic controls to talk
to, other planes
to watch for, restricted and regulated airspaces to keep out of,
terrain and obstacles
to clear, engine performance to consider, navigation equipment
to use, dials to turn...
Yes you guessed right, the flying is the
easiest part.
It's all
the other stuff that you've got to worry about. Talk about information
Ooverload, but in a fun and exciting way.
A few months ago I completed
the biggest milestone
in every student pilot life. I completed my solo cross country
flight. It was absolutely nerve-wracking. There was nobody to tell
me if I was
doing everything
right, no one to let me know if I was drifting toward class bravo
airspace, no
one to tell me to watch my altitude or airspeed, no one to watch
for other planes and most importantly no one to tell me what to
do if something went
wrong.
But
the flight went without a hitch.
I looked down at one point when
over a golf course and saw a couple of guys lookingup and pointing
at the plane.
That's
when it hit me. That used to be me down there wishing I was up
here. Now I was up
here looking down at people who probably wish to be up here. I
felt incredibly lucky and extremely fortunate.
I finally got my
pilot's license last month.
Flying has given me a new sense of purpose. I have learned so much
and the challenges
are both fun and exciting.
One thing is for sure: I have never
been discriminated against or treated badly my entire time as a
student pilot. Once in a while
I'll be doing my pre-flight check when someone stops by to make
sure things aren't
fishy. But it's always a friendly encounter. When I see suspicious
looking characters around an airport I do the same. It's usually
a friendly hello
followed by the
usual "Nice plane, is that the
180 horse power or the 170?"
So no, I have not been discriminated
against while being a student pilot in the post 9/11 world. Do
you want to know my
secret? Here it goes: I don't sit there waiting to be hassled.
I don't look around with
a pissed off look on my face because I happen to look Middle
Eastern.
I don't enjoy playing the victim to justify my shortcomings.
I
don't walk
around thinking
everybody is out there to get me. I don't hate everybody and
then act all surprised when they don't like me. I'm just an easy
going
guy who greets
people with
a smile rather than a mean look just because I think they might
hassle me!
You
should try it some time. Good luck and who knows, you might
even get to do something you always dreamedof
doing when you were a kid, too.
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