My husband is, by nature, a shy person.  He never wants to be the center of attention or stand out in the crowd.  He’s perfectly content to blend in and let someone else have the spotlight.    He had been the second in command for seventeen years at this point, and it wasn’t until year sixteen that he really started feeling like it was time for a change.  He prayed long and hard, knowing he would suddenly be the “man in charge.”  The one everyone looked to for leadership in the flight world. 

The captain isn’t just the one in charge of the cockpit; he often decides when the flight should start boarding, makes educated decisions about flying in weather, and makes sure the aircraft has passed all the safety measures before it takes off.  He also has the discretion to reject an aircraft if he feels it is unsafe. 

So, for Jeff to go from being one of the people who looked to the captain to being the captain was a big change.  It felt like a shift in our lives, like something deeper was going on.   His confidence had grown over the years, and his competence had improved with every flight.  He was/is good at what he does, and he was finally ready to become, well, the center of attention. 

It was January 2023, and I was waiting by the phone.  Jeff had done all the studying humanly possible, we had prayed and asked those very close to us to pray, and now I waited. The tension wrapped up in those hours made the room feel colder than it already did on this January morning.  

I knew he was in the simulator facing some of the most intense testing imaginable.   We hadn’t made public his attempt to become a captain because we didn’t want the added pressure of publicity while he was going through something so intense.  So there weren’t many people I could turn to while I waited.  My anxiety was high.  I wanted so badly for this to go well, but I was also well aware of how easily a mistake could lead to another and then to a “bust.”  How pilots describe not passing a test or a sim ride. 

I’m not even sure what time it was when my phone finally rang.  My heart rate went up a little as I answered. 

Me:  “Hello”

Jeff: “Looks like we made it.”

A little personal information…anytime Jeff has training or something big and stressful, once he passes, he sings a line from the 1976 Barry Manilow song “Looks Like We Made It.”  Just the one line.  If you know the song, I want to assure you that the rest of it does not apply to us.  Just the one line because we made it past the really hard thing we’d been anticipating. 

And this time was no different.

“Looks like we made it.”

I was OVERJOYED!  I felt myself truly exhale for the first time in a month.  All the sacrifices and hardships, the saying no to things I wanted to do because of timing or lack of funds, felt like a small sacrifice when the dream finally came true!  When I look back on the journey and how much it has shaped me, I see a woman forever changed for the better. 

But no one was happier than my husband!

He’d done it!

And, effective immediately, he would fly in the left seat.  He would go from the second in command to the first.  He would add an extra stripe to his epaulette and, most importantly, fly the plane he loved the most, the 737.

Jeff likes to call this plane the racecar of the sky.   It’s fast and efficient, and you still use a yoke to fly it.  It’s a Boeing, not an Airbus.  Airbus uses a joystick to fly, and it is a very different experience.  It really is a matter of preference, but if you ask my husband, he’ll tell you his favorite is the one with the yoke and rudder pedals.   

Thankfully, his base didn’t change when he became a captain.   He would remain in Charlotte.  The only downside was that this base was very “senior,” and it would take a while to move up the list there.  His schedules would be less desirable, but all of that paled in comparison to the very new and real fact that he was now,

CAPTAIN CARLSON.

Kind of sounds like a book character or something, doesn’t it?

I sure like the sound of it.

Jeff was on the first flight home as soon as he’d passed the sim ride. No one loves home like my husband.  It’s so conflicting how he could love flying around the country and world and yet still love to be home as much as humanly possible.  He didn’t take time to celebrate.  He caught the shuttle from the training center to the airport and got on the first available flight home. 

That night, when he walked through the door, the look on his face said it all.   He was slightly pale from a long, hard month. But the world shifted into place when I saw that big smile on his face.  It felt like we were stepping into a new chapter together, one we’d earned the hard way.  We ate dinner out and enjoyed all the feelings that come with accomplishing something you’ve worked for for so many years.  It felt like a miracle.

It’s been three years since Jeff became a captain.  He absolutely loves his job.  He takes it seriously and often thanks the good Lord for it.  It’s hard for me to believe this journey started back in 2004, after he lost his job.  God took something really painful and brought this beautiful gift from it.  What we thought was failure was really just the ending of a chapter and the beginning of a new one. 

When God puts something in your heart, he will bring it to pass. 

It may not look like you thought it would, and you may have to go through a lot to get there, but when you finally get to the place you dreamed of, it all feels worth it. 

Like I said last week, nothing is wasted.

I don’t know what you have growing in your heart.  But I do know, from experience, you can trust God with it.   You can trust he will make it better than you ever imagined. 

And if you’re ever in the airport, keep an eye out for Captain Carlson.  He’ll be the one rushing to the next gate to catch the next flight.  Or if you happen to be staring at the sky, you might see a 737 way off in the distance, and it might just be Jeff living his best life. 

This is the end of my memoir.  Thanks for reading the many chapters as I attempted to tell our story. 

I’m thinking about writing about his first flight both as a captain and as a first officer.  The highs and lows, pun intended lol, of the airline industry.  There are so many stories I could tell.   

Until next time. Have fun flying the friendly skies!