Life is about people.
My parents are the most important people in my life. I talk to my mom probably five times a day. I call her so often that if she doesn’t hear from me for three hours she assumes I’m dead. One day last week I only called her once, and she told me “I feel like we never talk anymore.” I guess that’s a good thing?
But part of that is being on the same page as my parents. My mom used to say “I don’t know what I’d do with myself if you ever died while flying.” And she’s not like that anymore.
She understands it’s my hobby. She understands it’s my passion. She understands how safe it is. And she understands that it’s truly what I would’ve wanted to do. When she starts with “what if” scenarios, I remind her of all the danger I could have been in on the ground if I hadn’t flown the three million plus miles that I have.
I don’t believe in things being “meant to be,” but I do believe that we only live once, and that we have to make the most of it. Flying is outrageously safe, and as far as I’m concerned the smartest thing we can do is travel as much as possible, even in light of this.
You can’t take material goods with you when you die, but you can leave memories, so make the most of it. And as the popular quote goes, “the world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page.”