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I have always wanted to take flying lessons. I have a crazy fear of heights so I thought that this would help me overcome that. Knowing all of this, last year my family bought me an introductory flight lesson for my birthday. Needless to say, I was a little nervous the day of.

My father and brother had already taken the flight lesson and had really enjoyed it, so I had heard in detail exactly what was going to happen that day. They had told me that the pilot showed them all of the security checks they go through before flying, explained what each instrument did, and then flew them around for about an hour. My dad admitted to feeling a little bored, he felt like it was more of a sightseeing adventure rather than a flight lesson, but he knew how interested I was in taking a lesson, so he felt that I would enjoy it more. What happened to me that day was far from they experienced.

When I arrived, I was introduced to my instructor, Nick. I asked him as many questions as possible while he was showing me the security checks, I was trying to stall, I was very nervous. When we were finished checking the plane, he told me to hop in, I started walking over to the passenger side, he stopped me, and told me to get in the pilots side, I was a little confused, but I hoped in anyway. He explained what all the instruments did, again I asked a lot of questions.

He told me to start the plane and taxi it to the proper runway, I knew that this was probably the only actual interaction I'd have with the plane's instruments so I was more than happy to drive it around. I kept laughing at myself the entire time because I kept wanting to steer the plane with the wheel, and not the breaks like I should. Turing the wheel made the flaps on the wings move, which obviously wasn't helping me steer the plane.

When we arrived at the proper runway he asked me if I wanted to take off. Confused, I asked him, "You mean, I'll be flying this thing?", he laughed and said that I shouldn't worry, if anything goes wrong he'll take over. Of corse I said yes, I couldn't think of anyone who has flown a plane before, so this was definitely the opportunity of a life time. The actual feeling of lifting off the ground was the same as it is in any other plane, but knowing that I was the one that was causing it to take off is a feeling I can't describe.

I have flown in commercial planes before, its easy to pretend that what you see out of your window isn't real. Its also easy to convince yourself that you're not as high as you really are, but in a small plane like the one I flew in, that's impossible. The door to my left was almost touching my arm, and my instructor on my right was inches away from me, the whole thing was a little cramped. Flying the plane was amazing, at one point Nick saw some clouds up a head and told me to "chase after those, lets fly through them!". Its exactly how I thought it would be, everything turned white and for a couple seconds I couldn't see anything.

At one point while we were flying and a big gust of wind hit our plane and we literally went from being completely level to flying at a 45degree angle. I freaked out. Nick wasn't phased, he laughed and said "I guess I should help you out here" and he levelled the plane.

We turned around and he told me to line the plane up with the runway. I assumed that he was going to land the plane, but he asked me if I felt comfortable in doing so. I jumped at the opportunity. Sure I was terrified of crashing it, but Nick assured me that he'd help me if there was any trouble, "because," he said jokingly "I don't feel like dying today".

They plane was all set to land, lined up perfectly, just as I was about to touch down, another gust of wind hit my plane causing me to land with one wheel on the ground and one wheel on the runway. Nick helped me bring the other wheel back onto the runway and I taxied it back to its spot. This was definately the best birthday gift I've ever received, one that I will never forget.