One autumn day, in the morning, James sat in a little café on the harbour in Portland, Maine. The mug in his hands was as warm as his quiet joy in his heart, and he stood looking out as the streets awoke--fishermen unloading their boats, the seagulls circling, and the smell of fresh bread in the air.
James had long been a dream pilot. When he was a boy, he used to sit on the edge of the water and watch airplanes flying around and in his imagination, he was in the cockpit. But life, which usually drags a man through various paths, pulled him in other directions. His dream seemed to become a far-off horizon that he could never be able to reach because of work, duties and scepticism.
Then, something changed. Flytpath Aviation was discovered by James.
The first time he entered the simulator, he got a jolt--the dream was now in reach. The cockpit lighting was bright, the displays enclosed him in a heaven that was breathing, and at times the motion platform drove him up and down; he genuinely thought that he was flying. It was the first time that James did not observe airplanes: he was flying one.
Training grew beyond a lesson day after day. It became a journey. He also learned to follow his gut feelings, confront adversity and find comfort in the cockpit of an airplane, previously able to peer through the window of. Each of the sessions took him a step nearer to the type of life he desired, and gradually, the doubt was dissolved in determination.
Sitting in the café and taking his coffee, James reflected on how his life was a different one. He was not only a man with a dream anymore, he was a pilot with a future. The same boy who had been looking up at the skies now had the readiness to fly in them.
Training him was not the only thing that Flytpath Aviation did; it was a fresh start. And when James rose to go out of the café, and was going to the airport to take another flight, he smiled. The horizon was no longer within reach. It was right in front of him.