Hey there everyone. Just thought I'd share, like many others, my personal story and the goals I hope to one day achieve with the CF.
As long as I can remember I wanted to be a pilot with the CF. Unfortunately those dreams we're cut short when I was 15 years old. Like my parents, I inherited some pretty bad eyes. It was a pretty tough blow to hear that its something I'd never be able to do, especially since it had always been on my mind since I was a kid.
The crushing news was delivered to me by my optometrist three years ago, and out of the blue a few months ago he gave me a call. Somehow he managed to remember my story and told me that candidates with glasses and contacts were now up for consideration for aircrew. I had been waiting for this day to come for a long time. Overjoyed, I immeadiatly contacted a recruiter to find out what my next steps would be.
Unfortuntely, my vision fell into the V3 category; still not good enough for the Canadian Forces. The only one career I was interested in was stolen from my dreams once again. For the second time, good news reached me from my optometrist: Laser vision correction is now approved for aspiring pilots. I would have liked to apply for pilot in ROTP but in order to be eligible for surgery I must be at least 20 years of age.
Although I'm two years away from being eligible, I decided I'm not going to wait around. Accepted to the University of Western Ontario for social science this sepetember 2008, I immeadiatly began the process of switching from social science to the CAM program at Western which is actually sponsored by the Air Force. I also have begun the application process at a reserve unit that is close to the university I will be attending. In addittion to this, I have begun taking my own flight lessons out of the local airport near Western (Same flight school affiliated with the CAM program) for a head start.
Although this may not make me a better pilot than someone else, I'm doing everything in my power to become as competitive as possible to hopefully one day apply as DEO after graduation or ROTP in my final years of university. I plan to have reserve experience, along with my flight experience to help me be more competitive. I also play a few sports, have a bunch of leadership experience (camp counsellor and hockey coaching) and plan to expand my leadership roles in the near future.
I meet with the recruiter of one of the reserve units in london this week to hand in all my paper work and get the beggining of my dream rolling.
Despite joining the reserves, flight experience, leadership experience etc. my future rides on my eyes. If all goes well then great, and if it doesn't I think I would like to pursue a career with the CF either way.
Anyways, this is the end of my rant, I felt I needed to tell someone because its all I've been thinking about day in day out for the past 6 months.
Thanks for listening
As long as I can remember I wanted to be a pilot with the CF. Unfortunately those dreams we're cut short when I was 15 years old. Like my parents, I inherited some pretty bad eyes. It was a pretty tough blow to hear that its something I'd never be able to do, especially since it had always been on my mind since I was a kid.
The crushing news was delivered to me by my optometrist three years ago, and out of the blue a few months ago he gave me a call. Somehow he managed to remember my story and told me that candidates with glasses and contacts were now up for consideration for aircrew. I had been waiting for this day to come for a long time. Overjoyed, I immeadiatly contacted a recruiter to find out what my next steps would be.
Unfortuntely, my vision fell into the V3 category; still not good enough for the Canadian Forces. The only one career I was interested in was stolen from my dreams once again. For the second time, good news reached me from my optometrist: Laser vision correction is now approved for aspiring pilots. I would have liked to apply for pilot in ROTP but in order to be eligible for surgery I must be at least 20 years of age.
Although I'm two years away from being eligible, I decided I'm not going to wait around. Accepted to the University of Western Ontario for social science this sepetember 2008, I immeadiatly began the process of switching from social science to the CAM program at Western which is actually sponsored by the Air Force. I also have begun the application process at a reserve unit that is close to the university I will be attending. In addittion to this, I have begun taking my own flight lessons out of the local airport near Western (Same flight school affiliated with the CAM program) for a head start.
Although this may not make me a better pilot than someone else, I'm doing everything in my power to become as competitive as possible to hopefully one day apply as DEO after graduation or ROTP in my final years of university. I plan to have reserve experience, along with my flight experience to help me be more competitive. I also play a few sports, have a bunch of leadership experience (camp counsellor and hockey coaching) and plan to expand my leadership roles in the near future.
I meet with the recruiter of one of the reserve units in london this week to hand in all my paper work and get the beggining of my dream rolling.
Despite joining the reserves, flight experience, leadership experience etc. my future rides on my eyes. If all goes well then great, and if it doesn't I think I would like to pursue a career with the CF either way.
Anyways, this is the end of my rant, I felt I needed to tell someone because its all I've been thinking about day in day out for the past 6 months.
Thanks for listening
