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Beautiful Hardship My Story

I was hired for my first airline job in August 2011. I had $45,000 of credit card debt. Most of it from my flight training. I left a job paying $75,000 a year to become a pilot. It was a $50,000 a year pay cut. It sounds absurd to do such a thing and even more so since I was over the age of thirty, but I was determined to make it work. I was watching the television one day before my job training was to begin and I saw the second airplane hit the World Trade Center. I got the call saying I no longer had a job. My career was destroyed. I had no place to go and ended up moving into my car. I collected unemployment and worked cash jobs when I could. I eventually left the state of Virginia and ended up in Las Vegas. Though I now had a job, I was still severely in debt. I was living in my truck, sleeping in the parking garages of the casinos. I didn't plan for my life to take this direction, but almost overnight my world had changed. I was living one day at a time. The clients that I flew had more money in their pockets than I had in the bank. I was disgusted with myself and embarrassed of my situation, but I never gave up. I kept paying down the debt and I kept saving in the bank. In September of 2007, I paid off my credit card debt. Today I am an accomplished airline pilot based in Milwaukee. My autobiography of the same title has been published. This is simply a condensed version.

Submitted by B. Michael Fett