271 days till the next World's Greatest Aviation Celebration, yes, I have a countdown app on my phone. To me, EAA is a holiday; but not just any holiday, the best holiday of the year. I am aware the EAA is not an actual holiday, however, I believe that it should be. I find nothing better than the beautiful scream of the Pratt and Whitney engines on the 777 Ecodemonstator. The strong scent of the pyrotechnics after they exploded as the Warbird planes flew over. I spent over 300 days counting down to this one week. There were a few things different about this year though: my passion for flying increased exponentially, I got myself involved with several activities, I was able to spend 17 hours of my day around airplanes. One thing stood out to me though: this year is the start of spending a majority of my day not only around airplanes, but around someone who was geeking out as much if not more than I was. 

On Thursday, we wore matching shirts. My shirt had an arrow pointing to the left along with “He is my copilot” written on it. His shirt had an arrow pointing to the right along with “She is my copilot.”

“Well who is the one in charge then”, he asked. It was followed by an immediate response by me.

“I am totally the one in charge”, I said with nothing but confidence in my voice. Those same seven words were repeated to multiple people, as we got several comments on our shirts. 

Something that many people look forward to, even if they don’t have much love for airplanes, is the night show. It is filled with planes, fake bombs, fireworks. I’d say the firework show put on by EAA is better than any firework show I have ever seen on the Fourth of July. Hundreds of colorful fireworks lit up the dark night sky. I had never been as mesmerized as I was during that night show. There were points during those three hours that I didn’t even know where to look. It was silent up until the sound of hundreds of thousands of people started applauding as a result of their satisfaction with the night show. There was one thing I had known for months, but it wasn’t completely obvious until I was able to turn my head to the left and catch him staring at me with a smile on his face. That thing was that just like those fireworks light up the night sky, he is the light of my life. 

One of my favorite activities I did was one that I in fact did not do by myself, Jarrett came with me! We spent one morning learning about the F-35, followed by us constructing our own model jets. One part of the construction was making a circuit for a light that would soon end up shining on the model. Jarrett had some difficulty making the circuit, which I continue to bring up, even months later. As a result of it being built incorrectly, he was not able to turn the light on. Meanwhile I was very excited, as mine lit up every time I flipped the switch to turn it on. 

We spent another morning waiting in line for two hours for my birthday present, a helicopter ride! As we were sitting in the helicopter looking around at an airplane-filled ground, I felt nothing but complete happiness. I had an absolute blast looking down at hundreds of gorgeous airplanes of all ages! There is no doubt that the helicopter ride was the best birthday present I have ever received! To be able to look down on airplanes that I’ve always dreamed of flying in was truly a dream come true. As I stuck my hand out of the helicopter, the sudden gust of wind blew my hand back. 

Something that continues to excite and interest me are the dozens of airplanes in the sky, thousands of airplanes on the ground, and out of 600,000 people, thousands of them flew their own airplanes to get here. 

There were times throughout the week where I had eaten nothing until about five or six at night. As a result of this, I was quite irritable at times. The hunger was visible to Jarrett, so as he always does, he chose to do the right thing and get me food. After six days of constant exploring and walking around, I thought it was only right to treat myself (as if I hadn’t bought myself several things during the week already). The brown sugar-dipped cake donuts Jarrett and I had eaten were so fulfilling. It was quite nice being able to enjoy something I only get once a year while watching something I only get to see once a year. 

It was a very busy EAA for me. I was tired, drained, and weak. There were nights that I was not even in bed until midnight or one in the morning. Something about me is that I am able to fall asleep anywhere.

Cars? Yes. 

Planes? Yes. 

On random people’s shoulders? Yes. 

There are no exceptions to this rule, especially after spending hours upon hours upon hours awake and active. Following the lack of sleep I got that week, I decided to take a nap. I sprawled out across two chairs during the middle of the airshow. 

“Ava, wake up,” Jarrett said. “The jets are flying soon”. 

    It was at that point that I realized I had slept through over an hour of the airshow. Multiple planes. Loud, very loud planes. Fake bombs exploding about 100 yards away from me. People cheering, loud music, I slept through it all. This was no surprise to me, I am a deep sleeper. The people around me on the other hand were very confused as to how I managed to get a decent nap in during the airshow. 

It quickly became the day of the week that I, along with thousands of other people dreaded: sunday. Sunday meant that all of the planes would leave, it meant that there would be no more war reenactments, no more freshly made donuts, no more hour-long conversations about airplanes with people I didn’t even know until that day. So, one of the last military aircraft to leave was the KC-46 Pegasus. Although it hurt a bit, the small stones and debris hitting my skin as I was standing behind that Pegasus as it was taxiing to the runway caused an adrenaline rush all throughout my body. It reminded me that there will be a day when I am taxiing my airplane to the runway on that Sunday after the airshow. After all, it is the place where I discovered my passion for aviation. 

For years I’ve known what I want to be, I knew what I would want to do, but it wasn’t until recently that I knew who I would want to be with.