Decisions, Decisions...

Isn't it crazy how challenging it can be to make decisions?

This past year has been pretty hard on both me and Scott and what we want our future to look like.  But  ever since Kaiser joined our family, and the couple months leading up to him joining us were especially difficult.  Mostly for Scott.

After many sleepless nights due to stress and anxiety, many prayers, and long conversations together, Scott decided that it was time change career paths, and to say goodbye to Mountain Ridge Helicopters.

This was an extremely hard decision for him to make for a number of reasons.  A decision that he had been toying with for quite some time before he told me about it.  I knew he was stressed for some reason, but he was a little apprehensive to discuss it or verbalize why because of the time and money we had already invested into the program.

After Scott finished with his private pilot's license, he took a step back to evaluate.  He enjoyed flying and was extremely good at it, but he wasn't as passionate about it as he felt like he should be to be spending the time and money that we were.  For a while, I could tell that something was bothering him, but all he would really say was that he was stressed about school and about the future.  This went on for 2-3 months.  I could tell something was bothering him so I kept digging (like wives do :)) and we finally had the discussion that needed to be had.  Scott finally admitted that he wasn’t sure that helicopter was the right choice for us and our family.  After many discussions, we went to the helicopter school to discuss our financial situation.  We received the news that in order for Scott to complete the program, we would need a lot more money than we thought.  That didn't sit well with Scott. It was just one more factor to add to what Scott was already feeling--that this wasn't the right fit for him. Being a helicopter pilot wasn't the lifestyle that he wanted.

The industry is really competitive and unpredictable.  I'm sure that Scott would have done well in it, and would have gotten jobs just fine, (regardless of what he says) but after all is said and done, he didn't want the lifestyle for himself, or for his family.  We would have been moving countless times from one job to the next for who knows how many years, which probably means that we wouldn't be able to get settled and buy a house for a long time... Scott wouldn't  have been able to be involved in Kaiser's life, or our future children's lives as much as he would want because he would work very long, random shifts... Scott would have gotten done, and we would have had so much debt with no guaranteed job at the end of it all to pay the loans back with... And because of our moving around so much, we would never be able to live in Logan again, or close to Logan for a number of years so our children wouldn't grow up knowing their grandparents, aunts/uncles, and cousins as well as we would have wanted them to...

Anyways, there are a number of reasons why helicopter school wasn't a perfect "fit" for us.  But I guess I don't feel the need to write any more down.  This had been weighing on Scott's mind for a very long time and now that he has made the decision to move on we feel so much better about our decision.  A huge weight was lifted off of Scott's shoulders.  He appreciates the profession and everything that he has learned from it.  He also made some great friends there.  But he just did not want to go through with it, it just wasn't his passion like it was/is theirs.

I really commend Scott for making the decision that he made because I know how hard it was for him.  I probably made it even harder for him because when he first told me, I was surprised because I knew how good of a pilot he was and I told him how well I thought it fit him.  But he knew what was best for him and our family.  He did not want people to think that he "quit" the school, or "couldn't handle it."  And I think he was worried that people would think those things and he definitely doesn't want to let anyone down.

We believe that everything happens for a reason, so we don't look at the time spent at helicopter school as a mistake.  We had a good feeling about going to school when he started, and we have a good feeling about being done with school and moving on now.  I don't know if we will ever know the reason why?

So as of now, Scott is finishing his Bachelor's degree at Utah State.  He is getting a Liberal Arts Degree, and possibly a Spanish minor.  He will also be doing prerequisites for graduate school.  He can be done with his Bachelors in 3 semesters, but probably more like 2 years with the prerequisites.  We are still looking into the right fit for Scott for graduate school.  We will see what happens, and where life takes us, but for now--we feel happy and content knowing that we will be in Logan for another couple of years.