By+Albert+Ma

你從小的愿望是什么？對(duì)世界充滿好奇的孩子們都曾有過大膽狂妄的回答，但我們大多數(shù)人長大后都選擇了笑談往昔，平淡生活。而本文作者似乎是個(gè)例外。成為飛行員是作者從小學(xué)就開始的夢(mèng)想，盡管這是一個(gè)學(xué)費(fèi)貴、課程難、對(duì)體格和心理素質(zhì)都要求極高的職業(yè)。當(dāng)17歲在美國拿到了第一張飛行執(zhí)照時(shí)，作者第一次真真正正地站在了夢(mèng)想的大門口。然而他的選擇是……

Remember back in the days， when your elementary school teacher asked you to write something about your dream job？ Some people wrote about becoming a policeman， some wrote about becoming successful businessmen， but I was always the odd one out—I wanted to become a pilot.

As a child， I travelled a lot. So far， Ive set foot on every single continent except for Antarctica1， and have travelled to more than 30 different countries before I turned 18. Thats probably what made me interested in aviation2. I remember thinking about how cool it would be to not only sit in the back of an aircraft as a passenger， but to have the opportunity to sit in the front tip of the aircraft， with the controls in my hands. That was the dream， and I guess itll come true soon.

As I grew older， I started to realize how hard this path could be， not only to become a pilot， but to eventually “climb up the career ladder”. Becoming a pilot is not an easy thing； not only do you need to be physically healthy， keeping up with the rigorous3 academic courses is also extremely challenging. Thats not all of it…it is VERY expensive to become a pilot. Many students drop out of training courses simply because they were no longer able to bear the costs of training， which is an extremely depressing thing to know， because these people may be giving up their childhood dreams just because of money.

Though the process of becoming a pilot is hard and academically challenging， that is the only way to ensure the quality of our training. You dont want a person with marginal4 qualifications to be in charge of your life when youre on a plane right？ For me， theres nothing more important than safety. My motto5 is that everything can be compromised， except safety， because nothing is worth more than keeping my passengers and myself alive. Ive seen a lot of accidents happen due to very basic errors， such as refusing to trust the flight instruments6 on the plane. On a commercial flight， hundreds of passengers sitting behind the pilot depend on his skills and judgments so that they dont fall out of the sky， and I pay my deepest respect to those who do everything that is needed to keep their passengers safe and comfortable.

For me， Im very thankful to have discovered my interest and my dreams since I was a child. Many of my buddies are struggling to figure out what field they want to go into， or what theyll want to major in， but thats totally fine！ Its okay to not know； thats why so many people embrace the American Liberal Arts education， knowing that you can be successful in life no matter what you do， and when you do it.7

I still remember back in September 2014， after I received my offer to attend Embry Riddle Aeronautical University， I decided that I was going to defer my offer for one year and to further explore the different areas of my life before going to college.8 Some have questioned my decision to do so， some thought that it is the dumbest9 decision Ive made in my life， but I dont think so. I personally think that the current education system is failing10 us， but since its the only system we have right now， we dont have a lot to choose from.

The system fails not because its too rigorous or too easy or anything along those lines， but because it doesnt really prepare our youngsters to face the society out there. There are so many things that we cant learn inside a classroom. Communication techniques； social skills； qualities of being humble and accountable； trustworthiness…our education system fails to address many of these crucial skills that we need in order to succeed in life， and a student will never develop these skills just by sitting in a classroom and listening to a lecture.11 This is why I decided to take a year off school， to really experience how our society is like outside my comfort zone.

My plan is to work at an NGO that aims to help underprivileged children to succeed in school through providing after-school tutoring sessions and through other extracurricular activities.12 I believe that this will be a very valuable experience for me， and this is probably one of the only opportunities that I have to do things like this， as Ill be dealing with the enormous workload13 during and after college. This is my choice， be a person feeling valued.

文章轉(zhuǎn)載自“香港文化交流工作室”（Hong Kong Cultural Exchange Workshop）。作者：馬鐘文（Albert Ma），20歲，目前在美國安柏瑞德航空大學(xué)學(xué)習(xí)飛行專業(yè)。他從小熱愛飛行，17歲在美國拿到了第一張飛行執(zhí)照。

1. Antarctica： 南極洲。

2. aviation： 航空，飛行。

3. rigorous： 嚴(yán)格的。

4. marginal： 勉強(qiáng)夠格的。

5. motto： 座右銘。

6. flight instrument： 飛行儀表。

7. 不知道也沒有關(guān)系，這也是為什么那么多人選擇了美國文理學(xué)院的通識(shí)教育，他們堅(jiān)信自己不論做什么，不論何時(shí)做，都是可以成功的。Liberal Arts education：博雅教育，又譯為：人文教育、通識(shí)教育、素質(zhì)教育等，是一種基于社會(huì)中人的通才素質(zhì)教育，不同于專業(yè)教育和專才教育。

8. Embry Riddle Aeronautical University： 安柏瑞德航空大學(xué)，是美國一所私立航天79航空科技大學(xué)；defer： 推遲，延期。

9. dumb： 蠢的（此處為最高級(jí)）。

10. fail： 令……失望，辜負(fù)了……的信任。

11. 溝通技巧、社會(huì)技能、為人謙遜和有擔(dān)當(dāng)、誠信可靠……我們的教育體系并不看重這些人生成功所需的重要技能，而且一個(gè)學(xué)生如果只坐在教室里聽課是永遠(yuǎn)學(xué)不到這些技能的。

12. NGO： 民間組織，非政府組織（NonGovernmental Organization）；underprivileged： 貧困的，物質(zhì)條件差的；session： 學(xué)期，上課時(shí)間；extracurricular：（活動(dòng)等）課外的。

13. workload： 工作量。