The first time I ever experienced flight in an airplane was on the adoption plane from South Korea. I may not have known I was 10,000 feet in the air, but I bet it was fun. After touching down in San Diego for only a couple of minutes, I was put back on that plane and flew all the way to Denver, Colorado. That was the first time I had ever flown in the air.

The second time I was high in the air was on a vacation trip to California. We were going to go to Disneyland and the places there. I was six so I remembered the flight well. As soon as we lifted off, my grandma gave me a stick of gum to chew. She said it was to help with my ears. I took it and soon learned what she meant; people started to grab their ears very quickly. It was like something had stung them and then the pain suddenly went away. I later learned that this was called ear-popping. Aside from the turbulence from going through a high cloud, it was a very enjoyable ride.

The third time that I went flying was when I went to Omaha, Nebraska for a strategic air and space museum camp. I was 11 and I was taken with my friend to Omaha. When we arrived, there were huge planes hanging by minuscule threads from the ceiling. It was really cool. It also had 2 different hangers with several different planes in them. On the second day of the three day long camp, the entire group was taken to an airfield on the outskirts of Omaha. When we got there, there were several elderly pilots waiting to take us to their planes. Me and this other kid were assigned to a pilot who had flown a plane that exceeded Mach 3. He was pretty cool. We got in the plane by use of the wing and strapped in. I sat in the copilot’s seat while the other kid was in the back because he was scared he was going to blow up the plane. This particular plane was a Cessna model. We lifted off with the pilot checking a whole bunch of dials. He asked us where we wanted to go. We didn’t care, so he flew us to the soapbox derby tracks which are very popular there. Then he handed the controls over to me. He gave me a lot of instruction, and soon he was telling me to go left and right. Then he asked the other kid if he wanted to try. This time he said ‘yes’ and me and him switched seats. This now allowed me to look at all the toy people down below. Since Nebraska is mostly farming, the entire place looked like a bunch of big squares. It was so perfect. Then he landed with a thud and we were back on solid land again. I heard some kids got sick.

All three of my early encounters with air have made me want to go back up there. It was a lot of fun. And I have the whole world to explore which means a lot of flying. Maybe even a pilot’s license.