He hadn’t felt this alive in years.

The gray haze of his teenage years, clouded by his father’s constant disapproval, seemed to evaporate. The higher the altitude, the more the pain of his past seemed to fade away.

He listened closely to the words of his instructor and followed the instructions he was given. As the flight continued, the more certain John became of one fact: he was born to fly.

As he controlled the craft through a cluster of clouds, he knew he was going to be a pilot and not run the family business.

Instead of an unsettling feeling, John felt the weight of the world come off his shoulders. He was like the plane he was flying; he wouldn’t be defying gravity, but the will of his father.

He would be free to feel alive.