Closer To Heaven

 People have always
asked me, “ What is it like to fly?”. And my fav answer has always been. “It’s like
leaving your entire worries on ground.” Yes it’s true. Every time I fly there’s
always this sensation of “trouble free” world. I’m not sure how this happen but
the feeling comes once the aircraft lifts off and disappears once we touch
down. Maybe it’s because we have too much checks to go through till we do not
have time to think, I’m not sure.

During the past few
days, weather has not been very kind to us. Never have I notice such tremendous
change in weather in such a short period of time. Just last month we had the
floods, and this few weeks there’s only a couple of rainy days. The sun is
burning hot but the wind is chilling cold. Since we have been experience strong
wind and haze these days, most of us have been just sitting around hoping for
the wind to ease.

So everyday we have
almost the whole day to ourselves. On an average 2 hours a day of flight, then
after pretty much doing our own stuff. One thing I notice that all of us have
in common is that everyone is crazy about games. It might just be true that
some say if you are good in playing video games, you most probably pass the
initial stage of the cadet selection. Just hanging around with my friends, it
sometimes just hit me to realize that just by looking around me most of the
people in this academy have an average age about 20-22. That’s amazing bearing
in mind that most of the students here will graduate way before the age of 24
and six month later they will be “driving” a multi-million dollar piece of
machine with 100-500 passengers on board.

Before I came into
the academy, I’ve always had this mindset that it’ll be some kind of military
styled academy (thanks to too much of TV and movies). Everyone in the academy would
be the serious no non-sense type, talking with a harsh voice and walking as
though they could land an aircraft with their eyes close attitude. So those
lead me to some nervous period of my life just days before entering Academy. Knowing
very well I cannot live a day without pulling a joke on someone, bullying
someone or simply joking around the whole day. It’s a trend I made myself
ever since the very first day I stepped into the “world of education”. Getting a
warning to behave from any teacher was just like having a meal everyday. To my
friends I was just a RASCAL, a litt demon. So I told myself that well that’s it,
I’m gonna get my @$$ kicked until I grad walking and talking like one of them. Came
the night before enrolling myself, I couldn’t sleep. I was tossing myself from
one end of the bed to the other end. Soon the next day, as I entered the class
(again late as usual, the grand-entrance) as expected I could smell the
seriousness in the class. Every face I looked has the “I’m the best” signature
on the forehead. I felt intimidated. I put on the “I just wanna study here and
graduate, please don’t eat me” face. So I sat down alone quietly at the back of
the class until I came upon a familiar head from behind. At first I thought to
myself “it couldn’t be, there was no mention about him coming to Academy” well
being the guy I am. I called from behind just hoping I didn’t get the wrong
guy. “ Oi, Azim.” I called. Then he turned back. AHHH confirm…

  Well the next day,
we got to know everyone and class started with no delay. And as usual after one
day of warming up my @$$, I showed the class my true colours even the
instructors were not spared. I pity the guy sitting beside me; he had to
tolerate my bully behavior for the next six months. From framing my friends up,
teasing them, and pinching their hair from their hands was my daily bread. As long
I couldn’t solve a problem, I’ll start to irritate others. Then my best victim
arrived, Sherard of CANADA. Hell did I showed him the meaning of “Malaysia".

    Small intro about Sherard, big tough guy, about 26 years of age, no neck like
me, like’s to show off his underwear tag where ever he goes. For Sherard
sitting beside me was the best things that ever happen to him, I think hehehe..
He was always the smarter guy with the most complicated questions. Whenever
there’s a time I think I understand a topic, he always raises doubt. We have
Q&A time after every topic. And you can just bet he’ll give the instructor
the hardest time. I personally like to disturb even my instructors with some
tricky question, but when Sherard came along I always go “hey, why didn’t I think
of that question?” But there is always a down fall for any wise man. For him,
is plotting. He was so slow in plotting that everyone could finish 3 questions
and you can bet he is still stuck in No.1. So I found a way to torture him
during his entire stay, by singing every single time I finish earlier. Nothing can
be more torturing than listening to me sing. The song? Well of course ONLY YOU….
He even compared me to a superstar…William
Hung …woohoo …Boy! Did he lose a lot of his hair during his stay in Malaysia. So I hope
where ever he is now, where ever he is flying to, whenever he does PLOTTING, i
hope he remembers me…hahaha

——————————To
be continued——————————-