SURPRISE: I live and breathe aviation.
There is just something about those big metal birds and all they’re capable of that has me falling more in love with them every day.
It’s not just about how majestic they look or how loud their engines roar… and it’s certainly not just about who made them… or who bought them and how that customer chose to paint them—though I DO love a special livery!
It’s about more than aesthetics and superficialities—in fact, what I love most about airplanes directly correlates with what I love most about stories: the “why” behind them.
Every time I interview for a job, I make a point to tell the hiring manager how incredibly important it is to me to know that my work has purpose. Before I dive into anything, and I mean anything, I ask myself “Why?” It’s just part of how I am and how I think we all are as humans—when your heart’s not in it, it shows.
So, a huge part of why I love airplanes as much as I do is because of their “Why?” As much as I’d like to believe all the 747s, A340s and DC-10s are flying purely for my visual pleasure, that’s just not the case. They’re uniting families, they’re bringing people of all ages to places they’ve never been, they’re carrying your mail… your packages, and they’re delivering supplies to people and countries in need.
Aviation is about so much more than bringing families to Disney World or getting you and me across the ocean. It’s altogether about so much more than transporting people… take the air cargo market, for example. It’s growing really, really fast, and I think that’s something a lot of non-AV geeks don’t really realize. Even if you’ve never flown, your life is so dependent on the aviation industry… just watch “Living in the Age of Airplanes” and you’ll get it.
At any given moment, there are nearly 10,000 planes in the sky carrying more than a million people and a heck of a lot of cargo—cars, animals, food, you name it. That’s remarkable, don’t you think?
A year ago tonight—a Thursday evening in the third week of October—I sat at home with my husband in our downtown St. Paul apartment, frantically preparing myself for what I considered to be the biggest opportunity of my life. The next day, on October 20, 2017 at 12:30 p.m., I was to board American Airlines flight 2455 from Minneapolis-St. Paul to Chicago O’Hare—a 400-mile, 80-minute flight. Upon arrival, I’d board the CTA Blue Line, exit at Clark and Lake, walk one block south and five blocks west to get there… to get to Boeing World Headquarters to interview for a spot on the Executive Communications team.
This year, I’ve been fortunate to travel often. Whether it was to Seattle for work, Orlando to see my dad or back home to Minnesota to visit family and friends… I spent a lot of time in the sky and even more time on the ground with people I love.
The Great Planes 