My Story

Writing has been a constant in my life even as the plans for my future had to change. I started taking flying lessons at the age of fourteen after my father bought me a ride in an airplane. I flew by myself at sixteen before I had my driver's license. When I became a flight instructor one of my first students was my father. My first piece was published in AOPA Pilot about my first engine failure at the age of 23.

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I flew for a small regional airline until they went out of business the same week I found out that I was pregnant with my first child. I took an unplanned break from flying since the airlines were not hiring and my second daughter was born with a rare genetic disorder. My writing focused on parenting a child with disabilities while I volunteered with several organizations. One of my favorite experiences was volunteering with a therapeutic horseback riding program and watching my youngest daughter learn to ride at the age of four before she could walk. Soon I was mucking stalls and putting hooves in ice buckets to pay for my oldest daughter's riding lessons too. 

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I returned to school and worked as a pediatric physical therapist with babies from birth to age three while teaching my daughter how to walk. I took her walker away in kindergarten because she was racing in the school hallway, and she began walking on her own. I wrote about my strong-willed daughter who was predicted not to live past her first year.  

 

Later I returned to aviation as a simulator instructor on the Airbus A320 for a major airline, and as a professor of aeronautical science. My flying career ended when I developed a chronic health condition. Writing helped me deal with debilitating pain and the challenges of being a patient. I wrote my memoir How Not to Fly an Airplane while earning a MA in science writing at Johns Hopkins University. My strong-willed daughter who was not supposed to live is now 31. I am working on my second book about navigating the health care system as someone with a disability.

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