Hello everyone! I can’t believe it is already March. In less than two months, I graduate from college. That is incredibly hard to believe. I am extremely excited to see what the future brings as I step foot into the real world.

The past few weeks have been extremely exciting and busy at the same time. The first topic of discussion is my weather class. Remember the long weather project I mentioned in my last journal entry? Well, my seven member group and I presented our findings last week to the class. It is amazing just how different weather can be in another country. We studied the Middle East and determined how weather affects aircraft operations. Our presentation was 2 hours long and consisted of 170 power point slides. Whew, that was a long one. But, the good news is that we learned a lot about international weather.

Another exciting thing I experienced over the past few weeks came about when I decided to apply for another internship. I did an internship last summer as many of you may already know. It was the best summer of my life! Because of that fact, I am trying to get one more internship this summer before I step foot into the real world. Last summer, I worked in the safety department at Continental Airlines. This was the first time I have ever worked with safety information. I loved it. Because of this fact, I decided to apply for a paid safety internship with Southwest Airlines this summer. Southwest is based in my home town of Dallas, Texas, therefore this would be a perfect opportunity. I would be able to live at home and still have the time of my life. I am flying to Dallas this Wednesday for an interview, wish me luck!

Finally, I had an extremely awesome week with my flight students. First off, my private pilot student flew by himself last Friday for the first time. This was a truly amazing experience for the both of us. We flew to New Smyrna Airport early Friday morning. When it was time for him to solo, I went up into the control tower and watched my student fly an airplane completely by himself. I was extremely proud of him! Taking a student from not knowing anything about flying, to flying an airplane completely by himself is the best feeling in the world. Secondly, yesterday, my instrument student passed his checkride on his first try! He was a Korean student I have been working with since the beginning of last semester. Now he is fully certified to fly in the clouds! I love my job!

Spring break is coming up!!! I’m going to stay in Daytona and catch up on some of my projects and chill at the beach. I hope everyone has a nice and relaxing break. Time to finish up my homework for the evening.

Warm weather and sunny skies are what I’m hoping for this coming week. My sister arrives on Thursday and some friends and I are driving to Orlando to pick her up. I can’t wait for her to be here!! My friends and I have made an itinerary of all the things we are going to do while she is here. I’ll make sure to post pictures of all the fun we have!

ROTC has been keeping me even busier because of Operation Bottoms Up (OBU) Week. OBU Week is a week where the 200s take over the wing and plan and execute everything for that week. To be on Wing Staff, you must submit an application packet and go to wing boards—basically an interview by upperclassmen. I submitted an application packet because I thought it would be good leadership experience and the whole packet took me about five hours to complete. The next day they said the boards would be held on Friday. When I found that out, I was torn between a rock and a hard place because I could either stay in Daytona, participate in the boards, or I could go to Georgia with my best friend to see his family. I thought about my decision and decided to go to Georgia. I don’t regret my decision and I still got a good position for OBU. I got OSS/CC which is Operations Support Squadron Commander. My primary job is to plan and execute Lead Lab on Wednesday morning. If anything goes wrong that morning, then it will be on me and my staff. I’m looking forward to next week!

At the beginning of last week, I met with my training officer for my mid-term evaluation. I think it went pretty well and I’m so glad that we have made it through the halfway point. I had to pick up more uniform items in preparation for Field Training. I can’t believe how soon it will be here! The training officers had a supplementary instruction session to give tips for Field Training and I learned some interesting things. When you come to college, go to events that you believe you will gain something from and go to some where you don’t think you will because you might be surprised. I went to Patrick Air Force Base and got my military id last week, so now I have proof that I’m part of the Air Force!

Classes are going well, but I’m a little disappointed in myself because I still haven’t started on my Business Law paper. I’m such a procrastinator! This week I plan to set a goal for myself to get all of my research done. I have two tests this week: Corporate Finance and Organizational Behavior. I did some studying over the weekend and I’m going to study tomorrow night, so I think I’ll do well.

Silver Wings is getting ready for a joint meeting with Arnold Air this week. We are going to discuss NATCON and play some games. I bought my ticket for NATCON last week, so I’m officially going to Phoenix in April. This weekend we had a joint road clean-up and then we all went out to lunch afterwards.

Well, I hope everyone is having a good semester at school and are looking forward to Spring Break. If you haven’t already visited Embry-Riddle, now is a good time to come because the weather is beautiful and you can check it out before you make your final decision. Next journal entry, I will cover Daytona Beach and Embry-Riddle from a newcomer’s perspective.

Until next time,
Kaleigh