Born to Shimmer, Born to Shine

I think the best moment is whenever everything finally comes together, especially after challenging times. It's like seeing the clouds finally break after weeks of torrential downpour and not being able to do anything but smile from ear-to-ear when a rainbow appears.

All the tears. All the frustrations. I wouldn't have gotten to this point if I hadn't gone through them. And ever last one of them makes this all worth it. I'd go through them again if I had known that this was the end result of all of that.

...now I just gotta remember that when the tears and frustrations come again. THAT'S the tough part.

I showed up to the CAP meeting early last night. My plan was to catch Auntie (the woman who acts like an Aunt of mine, and has basically adopted me already) as she came in and to see if I could sit with her as she did the radios. I'm running them at the end of the month, so I figured I need to sit in with people before it's my turn. She was more than delighted to help me. I even got to use it a bit. It seems intimidating, but it's really not - just basically reading off a script. I forgot "copy" at one point and the guy I was talking to laughed at me because I said it like a minute later. haha Oh well, it's a learning experience, like she said.

Afterwards, the guys picked on us for having our own private "Girls' club". A few of the guys came up to me to congratulate me about doing so well at the last SAREX. I still have no idea what they are talking about. Seems Buzz was bragging on me a little, maybe even the Commander too. One of my buddies ribbed on me (good-natured, of course) about messing up on the radios, because he overheard it in the other plane. We went out for drinks afterwards and he mentioned some trainee calling messing up on the radios with a direct look in my direction, followed by a wink. Then he asked me what we call an ELT during a training mission. "Practice beacon", I said with a mock sigh.

Then I talked with the person in charge of safety - seems I need to make a presentation in the near future. Just 5 minutes or so for the first one. I asked him if we had a fire/tornado drill set up and if so, have they practiced it in awhile? Yes, they have one; no, they haven't practiced it.

Next, I talked with the guy who was saying he wanted to fly with me. I emailed him the remaining sign-offs I needed to get my Mission Observer rating. He's going to work with me to get those done. Something clicked when I was up in the air this last weekend - something I haven't felt in a long time. I need to get back up in the air as soon as possible. I've started craving it again.

Another thing all of this has taught me is to try to be more supportive and encouraging of other people. People flourish more in a positive environment. Why not try to help to bring them up, rather than bring them down? I mean, don't coddle them or be fake about it. We just never know how being someone's cheerleader could help them shine.

In other news, training hard for the Spartan 5k and a race this Saturday and prepping/picking a date for my practice MAT. So lots going on, a lot to prepare for and lots of fun to be had! :)