I flew to Nashville to give myself a mini-vacation and to get on the endangered species of a bird, the DC-9-40. It was pretty cool to get on one of seven remaining aircraft in the world. I got to fly one of four remaining DC-9-30s on the leg back. It brought me back to my days of being 18 years old, pre-Riddle and doing what I did best and loving every minute of it.I start my final chapter at Embry-Riddle on Tuesday. It is kind of scary actually. I remember walking through the doors as a freshman trying to find every loophole to drop out and go back to flying 7 days a week, but now it’s here and I’m not sure I’m ready.
I found a lot of people I care about here and people who care about me (or they would have let me drop out and not finish my education).Further, when I went to Oklahoma, I was surrounded by employers who were very impressed with my photographic memory of accidents past, specific safety-related events and ideas for ways to improve safety. So I think that my education paid off at Embry-Riddle and I will be put into a position where I cannot only say that I did something to help change, I think I’ll actually achieve it.
Speaking of change, Friday the 27th will be four years since Delta Connection Flight 5191 impacted the ground during its takeoff role. Within four years of the accident I will be a college graduate in the field that was inspired after this accident. 
I can’t believe that the time just kept marching on and I am four years older and wiser.On the 26th I will be flying out to Kentucky with a friend who works for Comair and he will be working the 0600 departure back from Lexington to Atlanta on the 27th. It will be a mirror of the accident flight four years earlier, but it was something he needed to do for himself, and he asked me if I would tag along for moral support. The one thing that we were talking about was how back in 2006, on the 26th, flying seemed fun, safe, and a way of life, but on the 27th we woke up, and it had all changed.
My internship at the Prosecutor’s Office has really proved to be an exceptional experience! For one, I was able to take a tour of the Ocean County Jail last week. For any of you that watch the Jersey Shore television show, this is the jail that they take one of the cast members to in the first season. In addition to seeing the jail, and feeling extremely unwelcome by the inmates there, I was able to see “Pauly D” of the Jersey Shore, while on a ride-along with the Sea Side Heights Police Department. The cast member “Snookie” was also arrested the Friday night I was there. Even though I was not involved at all with these people, I still thought it was pretty cool to have “been there.” Going back to the topic of jail, I am not sure how many of you have been to jail (hopefully none), but it really is an awful place. No matter how many T.V. shows you may have seen, or stories you have heard, nothing can replicate the shear feeling of being inside a jail. Typically people avoid places of high crime where criminals live during their daily lives, but in jail, this is the home to many of those criminals. Aside from the whistling, the sneers, cursing, yelling, etc. the jail was a great educational experience.
The other major highlight of my past two weeks was being able to do a ride along with the New Jersey State Police. Thankfully my boss was able to set up the NJSP taking me out and showing me the “ropes” at Troop D, which covers the Turnpike. For a link to the NJSP Troop Map, 
I went out to Oklahoma City and went to the FAA Cabin Safety Research facility and worked on some interesting projects with airline professionals from all over the world. We did evacuation drills and saw that even the most experienced in the industry still have trouble evacuating a smoke filled aircraft. The fire exercises were the most difficult for me emotionally though. The flight attendant trainers made an interesting comment. “This is a step up from initial” I nodded and we talked to the FAA facilitator. She told us that this is a better simulation of an actual crash. I definitely have a new respect for smoke inhalation victims after doing this exercise. As I exited the aircraft and saw the light, and fresh air, I needed a second to recover. The rest of the night was a little difficult for me as well. The next day we did fire exercises to test the effective use of the flight attendant vs. fires. Later that night we all went into downtown Oklahoma City and did some of the touristy stuff such as boat tours and local restaurants. We had such as great time together. I would have to say though that the pool day was the best. The life raft drills were the best to show how flight attendants and passengers really need to work as a team to make sure that no one falls overboard or gets out the plane. I loved my “Crew” for the week and it was so hard to leave them. Luckily, I impressed the crowd with my ability to counter argue anything that was thrown at us by being able to photographically layout any accident or piece of information from research that was thrown at us. In the end it looks like I will have an internship lined up in a cabin safety-related field to better educate the future of flight attendants forever!
All I can say is sometimes you cannot help it, the action gets to you and you can’t tell the difference between reality and research or simulation. You start to believe that the events unfolding around you are real, the sounds of screeching metal, the smell of fire and burning furnishings, and the sounds of the screaming. You can forget how scary a deceleration process and post crash environment can be and there’s only one thing you can do…fasten your seatbelt!