It's a bittersweet day as an American Airlines icon bids farewell. 36 years of greatness has now come to an end as the McDonald Douglas MD-80 better known as the "Mad Dog" and "Super 80" officially enters retirement today. It's final flight with American Airlines Flight# 80 from Dallas (DFW) to Chicago (ORD) this morning is now a story in the aviation history books. It's final resting place will be the boneyard in Roswell, New Mexico. What a marvelous aircraft and definitely one of my favorites. I had the opportunity to fly on an MD-80 from Charlotte to Dallas in the summer of 2012 before finally calling Texas my new home. Now I have to find a nice scale model just like the one in the picture.
Had the chance tonight to watch Liberty University's Convocation from last week with special guest speakers Dr. Cornel West, professor at Harvard and Dr. Robert George, professor at Princeton. Two best friends, Christians, and two different political views with one commonality... the search for truth. What great display of dialogue, discourse, and a love for Jesus Christ. I haven't always agreed with Dr. West on the political spectrum but I have always respected him and his views and find a lot of commonality both Black Americans and individuals who know what injustice feels like. I have to admit after watching these two men, God really convicted me. He convicted me in the way I dialogue with those I tend to disagree with sometimes. I realize now that I am a fallible human being and I need to be a better Christian in dealing with those I may disagree with, whether it be religion, politics, and even academia. Watching this convocation service blessed me and I hope it can bless you too. Definitely a MUST WATCH.
When I was finishing my senior year in college, I was applying for the Air Force OTS route because I wanted to fly fighters or anything I could qualify for. Worked hard. Got in great shape. My aviation instructor wrote a great recommendation letter and another military friend. Drove to Ft Lee in VA to MEPS to do my physical. Had to come back at another time to take the AFOQT. The problem is that every time I was scheduled to take the test, it would abruptly get cancelled and rescheduled. There were a couple instances when I was two hours into my drive and I would get a call from my recruiter to turn around and come back because the testing was pushed back again. I didn't know my ex girlfriend's father was the Test Control Officer there. He knew I was nearing the cut off age for the selection process and he was trying to cause me to miss that window by pushing back my tasting testing dates. She and I dated for 3 years and she is Caucasian. Her parents hated the interracial relationship and wanted nothing to do with me regardless of the fact that she and I were people of faith and lived moral lives. I never had the chance to meet her parents for three years. We broke and I eventually found out she was cheating on me while doing her summer internship. It wasn't until after we broke up that her father decided to try to ruin my life. It was frustrating but it all began to make since as to why my AFOQT testing dates kept geting pushed back and I had to finally open up to my Air Force recruiter and liaison about the situation. I filed a complaint to the station commander but it went no where. I was so stressed out by the whole ordeal, by the time I was able to finally take the AFOQT, I didn't score as well as I needed to. I can only blame myself. I allowed him to get in my head and stress me out. I appealed to Senator Lindsey Graham, my state Senator at the time about everything that had happen and what my goals were. I guess his office reached out to DC to the Pentagon because I got a letter a few weeks later from a high ranking Air Force official apologizing for all the crap I had to go through and that even if I would be allowed to retake the AFOQT and get selected, I would have reached the cut off age before completing flight training. I did have the option to pursue enlistment but I didn't want to settle for enlistment after busting my butt getting a college education. So yeah, I have a bit of a chip on my shoulder. Much of it I blame myself for not persevering in times of adversity. I would stress out and shut down when things go hard for me. I regret that but it eventually made me a fighter.
I've been trying very hard to get a pilot spot with JetBlue Airways the past three years. This year I nailed the initial assessment and made it to the phone interview portion for the first time. Then a week later I was invited to Orlando for an in-person interview with a panel and other candidates. It was great to get away from Texas for a few days and fly out to JetBlue University in Orlando. The interview went well. The second assessment test was easy. I felt like killed it on the simulator test better than everyone else. I was the only one in my group with a Masters degree in aviation and flying experience. Got an email two weeks ago that I didn't make the selection because of more "competitive" candidates. Apparently I didn't stand out enough in the group activities. That just took all the oxygen out of me hearing that. I felt defeated. I got depressed briefly. I worked so hard to get to that point and then to fail. Is it fair? No. All you can do is get up, dust yourself off and climb that mountain again. God knows how long I've been preparing myself b0th mentally and physically for this opportunity. Not to mention the spiritual preparation in trusting His timing.
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