My parents always told me that they never figured out what they wanted to do with their lives until they were well into college. I know personally several people who changed their majors 3 times in the span of a few months. Therefore, it was only natural to receive weird looks and snickers as a child when I knew exactly what to do with my life at such a young age.
I was born and raised in a country where violence is a daily occurrence and I spent 9 years of my life there. No, I’m not talking about the United States, but a far less known country in the middle of Central America–El Salvador. Although my parents always provided the best for my brother Luis (who is 5 years younger than I) and me, there was not much of an opportunity to move up the ladder. It came as a surprise to my mom and dad when I told them I wanted to do something related to the skies. My mother worked in Iberia as a saleswoman, and that was the closest anyone could get to the clouds without being a pilot. I don’t know exactly what pushed me in that direction. Maybe it was the thrill of the conquest of the unknown, and maybe it was just a secret desire to have been born as a bird.
In 2002, a breakthrough happened. My dad got offered a job in Miami, Florida. Our first apartment here, which was offered to him by his company for a few months, was located only a few miles from Miami International Airport. I delighted myself every night sitting on the balcony staring at the airplanes land, much to my mother’s disapproval, since we were so high up in the air. When it came time to buy our new house, I bothered my dad to be near airplanes. I guess it worked, since we ended up just 2 miles from Tamiami Airport.
Fast forward to the present, my family now lives in San Ramon, California (which is about an hour east of San Francisco). I stand where I always dreamed of being. I am an Aerospace Engineering major (my eyesight prevents me from being a pilot) at one of the best schools in the country. I have to admit, though, that Embry-Riddle wasn’t exactly my first choice. Neither my parents nor I had heard of this school–maybe since we had lived abroad for so long. After doing some research during my senior year, I narrowed my choices to 7 schools–SUPAERO in southern France, Georgia Tech, UTexas-Austin, UCF, UF, and Florida Institute of Technology and, of course, Riddle. After visiting most of these schools at the end of the fall, my pick became evident. Honestly, the campus did not catch my eye at first. It is a more suburban city than I was used to back in Miami, and the school itself is pretty small compared to the other state schools I was used to. However, after pondering on it for a while, and after visiting the amazing labs around, I couldn’t resist.
So far, I don’t regret my choice at all. You get to really know the people around you. The best advice I have is come to the open houses the campus offers in the fall and the spring (I believe they are held in October and April). I met some of the best friends I have in those days. Another great tip? Whatever school you decide on going to, Facebook-stalk your future classmates! Well, maybe just join the c/o 2015 pages that are cropping up around the net. Hands down, this is the best way to find others with the same interests as you do, and you never know! Your best friend might be just a click away!
P.S: Feel free to contact me with any questions you might have–whether you’re a girl seeking a friend (the “Riddle Ratio” is pretty evident–though most people you ask exaggerate it.), or you’re just seeking unbiased advice from a college freshman. My e-mail is up top (adrianaosegueda@hotmail.com), or you can also find me on Facebook (facebook.com/itsadri)
Although I spent most of my life in my home state of Maryland, I was actually born in the United Kingdom, specifically Scotland. Growing up overseas, my passport saw a lot of miles. Some people don’t even fly until they are 10 or so. My first flight was when I was approximately 6 months old and once I was old enough to know what aircraft I was going on to get to my destination, I loved to visit the cockpit. You see before 9/11, kids were allowed to tour the cockpit, meet the captain, and even take some pictures. This even strengthened my interest for aviation. When I was six, I moved over to the United State and once here, my home town became Annapolis, Maryland’s capital. I attended and graduated from Broadneck High School in June 2010. Ever since the beginning of my senior year, I knew I wanted to go to Embry-Riddle. Quick story: one night, I searched; “best school to become a pilot,” and top result was Embry-Riddle. After that I did some research, fell in love, and decided to visit and tour the campus several times. While some students answered the question “Which college do you plan on going to?” as “undecided” or “not sure”, I responded confidently, “Embry-Riddle.”
My major is called Aeronautical Science and is one of the most popular majors here at ERAU. It’s a fancy name and when people hear it, they aren’t too sure what it is. In basic terminology, the major is “Professional Pilot.” With that major you have the preferable choice of flight. I’m guessing since you want to be a pilot, it would make sense that you should know how to fly. Embry-Riddle is great for it. Our flight line is right next to Daytona Beach International Airport. Planes are always flying when you go to class you will always here the noise of propellers turning or the roaring of engines. Now although I have traveled commercially on vacations, I had never been in the cockpit controlling the aircraft. So if you are planning on coming to Embry-Riddle and fly, make sure you love flying. Take a first lesson in your hometown, just so you know you will enjoy flying and won’t get motion sickness. I had my “discovery flight” and it was basically love at first flight. The sensation of seeing everything from the sky is amazing. Even better, you can brag to your friends. While they were studying Chemistry or History, you were flying over one of the most famous beaches with your shades on smiling and enjoying your “class”.
Zipping to the present, I am currently a freshman here at Embry-Riddle. It is my fourth week of classes and still in love and finding more and more reasons why I love this place. The move-in experience was great. You will be assigned to one of several dorms: Adams, Doolittle, Mckay, or Woods. I live in McKay which I believe is the best dorm, honestly, I could be biased but that’s our little secret. It’s older than the others but so much roomier. It used to be a motel and you only have to share your bathroom with one person, where in Doolittle, eight people to one bathroom area. During the move-in the staff was very helpful and the Orientation team, or the O-team as they like to be called, was amazing at planning events to get people mingling, informed, and to adjust to the college life. I hope to become part of the O-team next year Fall 2011, so maybe once your moved in I might be running down your hall, banging on your door, reminding you to come to the show.
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!