No Girls Allowed!

At some point or another growing up as kids, some boy would have hung up some sign somewhere with the warning, "No Girls Allowed!" Now, not every boy might have written such a sign and posted it, but most boys would have been involved with this in some way or another. Or there would have been some kind of secret club that girls were not privy to, or some kind of secret handshake. Not that girls didn't do it too, but usually they wanted boys attention so they usually just did it in some form of retaliation at being left out. The problem is, as much as you'd think we've grown out of such childplay, I think it's worse now as adults. And I think it all comes down to the fact that boys, and men, are scared of girls, or think we're some weird kind of species that is different from them in some way or another.

Perhaps not all men are scared of girls, or you'd like to argue against this, but I've seen it with my own eyes on several occasions. I've attempted to join a conversation of men to find everyone standing in silence the moment they realize I'm in earshot. Or entered a room full of men only to watch them scatter, to which I am left wondering exactly what it is I've done wrong. And really, I wouldn't care that much, if you guys find my presence discomfitting, fine, then I can leave. The problem is, that tends to leave me quite alone when pursuing a hobby rather lacking in feminine company. So while you guys are standing around trading tricks of the trade, or joining each other on flights to this or that fishing hole, I'm left by myself, wondering where the hell to go.

But I've decided that being left on my own maybe isn't so bad. At least this way, when I push myself a little, the accomplishment is all mine. It's just a good thing I like to read, so that where I may have been able to jump in with someone else and learn a few tricks of the trade, instead I'll just have to find the right book and learn from someone else's experiences. Besides, I've usually been the type not to let anything stop me from doing what I wanted to do, so why am I letting the fact that I have no one to help me stop me from trying new things flying. Perhaps because there's always the risk of death if I do something wrong or make a big mistake. On the other hand, if I don't do it myself, I'll never learn how. And really, contrary to what most people say, I'm pretty sure the chances of me dying are pretty slim. Major injuries? Perhaps. But you can always recover from an injury.

So, I've come to the realization that I'm on my own with this whole flying thing and I guess I have to stop making excuses and waiting around for someone else to show me what to do. I'm just going to have to go do it myself, learning as I go, and hope that my mistakes remain limited to improper lingo or forgetting batteries in my GPS and not landing in a field that had just been seeded by gun-wielding drug lords or mistaking a swamp for a runway. And I guess, if it comes down to it, my super-awesome instructor is only just a phone call away just waiting to share his knowledge and prowess with me...