The Flight to Promise Land

I woke up at around 0430H in the morning after the alarm on my cell. I rose up to clear the bench at the living room and turned off the laptop computer which was fully charged and was left plugged at the computer table. I was thinking of the schedule of departure for the day, my flight mission to Zamboanga on my 1st assignment as a fixed wing mechanic. I was reminded of the freak drinking spree which caught me to be placed on the mission. It was a consequence which I couldn’t completely blame on alcohol or the loose talking that follows when one gets the booze. But I could not take for granted the camaraderie that was opened by that conversation which brought me in close relationship with the Chief of Headquarters. A noted fixed wing pilot himself who pioneered early missions paving way for the establishment of the 4th Air Station of the unit in the south. Just by then, the course of my writing suddenly took a twist.

There was a little trace of fear that comes with the uncertainty in being exposed to a new situation making me a bit worried. I was reminded of those early missions I managed to get through in my past assignment at the rotary wing and such gives me a bit of inspiration. I proceeded for the bath the way every day’s routine mission has to start. Dressing up afterwards and collecting my things putting the laptop computer on its carry bag, my life story is on the go again. After nearly 4 months of being grounded on the mission and anticipating to get out of the service for the opportunity outside that never came to being, I am back to square one. I could no more have double thoughts about getting full time in the service and watch my chances disappearing as I grow in age. Whatever consequences I may meet along the way against my freedom of choice, writing about it gives me the freedom to loiter the possibilities in my favor. It would be the least human ability that was imbued in my being and something that couldn’t be taken from me.

I wake up my cousin in sleep to get the key to the main gate of the residence prior to leaving. Wearing my sneakers and finally having my laptop’s carrying case on my shoulder, I have felt the usual weight on my shoulders. I was reminded of the early morning when I left our home in the province to attend my first day in college as a freshman at the University of the Philippines in Iloilo. I was carrying a bag loaded with clothes and two volumes of Grolier International Dictionary and my uncertainties were twice as much. 15 years hence was just a bit different with a longer journey and a lighter load. I could have hardly imagined advancing to a laptop computer loaded with an encyclopedia and with all the photos I’ve taken through the years and the writings, which I have managed to organize through the experiences. But here I am now. Everyday in new assignments always bear the usual strangeness that becomes familiar as it unfolds in the process. I set foot to walk the distance to the main road of the subdivision at the absence of tricycles at 0415H, a walk further until I manage to get the ride to the jeepney stop. I was too early to avail of an orderly pour of commuters at the terminal. Taking the ride on a jeepney filled with an even seating capacity, my day has begun smoothly beyond my worst expectations. The trip pressed on without tight traffic at Aguinaldo Highway so I arrived at MIA Road in time to walk the distance of the Nichols jeepney stop along Tambo. I made it at the entrance of Delta Gate of the General Aviation Area of the Domestic Airport at 0500H and everything remained still. I walked crossing the taxiway eyeing for the silhouette of a Cessna 421 at the flightline in front of the unit hangar but it wasn’t there. With the door of the unit hangar halfway opened I realized I made it early for our scheduled departure.