Luckily, we get to color own world and get to choose just how we see things.
Thirty six thousand feet in the air is a pretty amazing place. Even as you move over the ground at a speed of roughly 500 miles per hour, everything below you moves slowly and the world slides peacefully below as you make your way to wherever you're headed. If you were moving at that speed at 150ft over the ground, it would be a lot more chaotic The speed is the same in both cases, however the perspective changes which alters the whole feeling of the scenario.
I woke up in a terrible mood a couple mornings ago. It started by rolling over, grabbing my phone, and looking at the most recent news regarding predictions of when the aviation industry will recover from the pandemic. 2 years. 3 years. Who knows? That led me down the path of "Why did I choose to do this?" What am I doing? How am I ever going to progress in my career? Will I ever be able to retire? Will I even have a job at the end of September? Will I ever make it to a major like I had hoped to? When will I be able to be the breadwinner of the family?
I don't know about you, but my mind tends to spiral and go down paths that aren't very good for me sometimes. I forget that in late February, I was flying as much as I wanted and the possibilities for my career were endless. Then, out of seemingly nowhere, COVID happened.
Some days, my attitude is as follows: I hate this! This is bullshit. Homeschooling and being with the kids is a nightmarish walk through the darkest parts of hell. If they keep repeating the same phrase they heard on youtube, that makes no sense, ONE more time, I am going to COMPLETELY lose my shit. If I have one of them ask me one more question like, "How much does a hot dog weigh?" or "Do spiders have testicles?," I might tear my ears off my head. I want to eat stuff that's terrible for me, sit on the couch and mentally check out of life as much as possible. UGH! AHHHHHHHHHH! For the love of everything good and holy, can the kids focus on one topic for more than 27 seconds before having to be redirected?!?!?
Other days, I force my self talk and attitude to be as follows: I am so lucky! I am still getting paid to fly or to sit at home. When I am at home, I have a home gym so I can work out as much as I want, focus on my health and my family. I get to spend a lot more time with my wife and kids and life is pretty darn awesome. We can have movie nights and I can teach them fun stuff about aviation and science.
The situation is the same, my perspective is what changes on those days. The struggle lies in finding the right perspective. Some days it's easy, some days it's hard. I try to give myself some grace on the days I am not so happy about it and sometimes I don't even succeed in that and that's okay.
The pendulum WILL swing the other way. Life will go back to being incredible. The kids will go back to school. We will all go back to work. We will all see our families again and be able to hold and hug them again. The world always has a tendency to right itself and come back to equilibrium. All we can really do is wait and while we're waiting, we can use that time as best we can to improve upon ourselves.
Take care of yourselves and each other. Thanks for reading this. Talk to you later.