I Don’t Know How To Be Old! I’m Not Very Good At It.

I must admit it; I am a failure at it. I’m running my life backwards.

Something I should have done in my twenties I am now doing while approaching my eighties.

The more I think about it, the crazier it sounds.

But it’s not crazy at all. Should age impose parameters on dreams?

My wife tells me that she knows of only one person who was able, like me, to make his childhood dreams come true.

It’s not easy to know what you want to do or become when you are a young boy or girl.

I always knew I wanted to be a pilot and a singer. Not just a recreational pilot, but a professional one. Not just a recreational singer, but a professional one.

I achieved them both.

The craziest thing I ever did, though, was to decline a job as a pilot in order to go into show business. A decision I made while…unemployed!

Thank God I had a wife who supported me. “I’ll support you in whatever you choose to do,” she told me that day while staring at the letter offering me a job as a pilot.

The fear in my gut is still palpable today when I think about it.

But I went against all odds because the heart was singing a different tune. Long story; but I raised my family with singing. Forty six short, wonderful, traumatic years.

So, that day in 1972 I put my flying dream on hold. “I can always become a flight instructor while being a singer,” I surmised.

Well. Show business took some heavy lifting and the flight instructor fell by the wayside.

But no more! Like Oliver Wendell Holmes so aptly said: “ Old age is fifteen years older than I am.” In this day and age I would say it’s at least twenty years older than I am.

Flyers love acronyms. It’s a way to remember simple and complex tasks.

I’m branding myself as Papa Bravo!

Papa and Bravo are military codes for the letters P and B.

Papa stands for Preparing Another Pilot for Adventure, and Bravo stands for Because Retirement Affords Valuable Opportunities.

Of course, you can call me “papa” and pat me on the back to congratulate my achievement with a “bravo!”

That’s it. That’s my New Year’s resolution and I’m sticking with it.

I’ll report back next Christmas. I have a full year of serious study.

“We are young only once, after that we need some other excuse.” ~Author Unknown

And…that’s the way I see it.

© Gino Federici 2018

A Reflection

If I thought my dreams were unachievable
I’d have dug myself a grave
While still able to hold a shovel
Without puffing, or an ache.

If I thought my dreams were fancy
Rather than a certain fate,
I’d have said goodbye to dancing,
laughter, struggle and love, to date.

© Gino Federici 2018