I was born in Warwick but I moved to Providence when I was six, in first grade. I lived here with my family basically all of my life.
I was at Hope High School for ninth grade, but then I transferred to Central. This is a much better school. Hope was a lot more disorganized, and it was really hard to work over there. Always noisy, lots of distractions, a lot of fights. There was something like four fights a day. I wasn't doing so well grade-wise at Hope so my parents wanted to get me out of there. When I got to Central I realized quickly that it was much better. The teachers teach from bell to bell, they give you time to do your work and they explain it thoroughly. For me, I really like to read and my English classes have been great.
I've had my flying license for three months now—it's what I love to do more than anything else. I've always been into planes. My grandmother bought me an introductory flight when I was thirteen. We just went up for a little while and I was afraid to death. But when I was fourteen I went back and started the lessons every week. When I was seventeen I soloed a plane, flew it all by myself with no one else onboard. That's my thing—flying. That's what I work for. It's been my dream since I was thirteen.
I always liked to read, and once I started getting into planes I would read about them all the time. I think I want to fly for a commercial airline, maybe business jets. I'll be doing a lot of flying in school, about three hours a week. Right now I'm just building my hours. I have 100 hours so far, but you only need 40 for the license. Usually by the time you get to the airlines you'll have about 1,000. So three hours a week over the next four years should start to get me close.
I'll be going to the University of North Dakota next year in Grand Forks. It's one of the best aeronautical science programs around. I have to take flight labs, weather labs, traffic control labs, safety labs, and communications, too. I don't know anyone out in North Dakota. No family, no friends. I guess I'll adjust to it pretty quickly, hopefully. But I'm not too worried. The whole thing about flying is that you can get anywhere pretty quickly, so I'll see my family when I can. My family and I are going to drive out in August. My family takes a road trip every summer so this will be a nice way to start college. We've been to every state together, except for Alaska and Hawaii. I'm the oldest of five kids, so I'm the first to go to college. It's kind of a big deal for my family so everyone's really excited to come.
I'm following my path to flying in college that I've had for a long time. At Central I've been able to pursue that goal, and that's all I could have ever wanted from my high school. It makes things a lot easier, having a clear goal. I know what I need to do, and that's all there is to it.
Abigail Perez>>
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