Goodbye!

Sarah Miller
MSMU Class of 2026

(6/2023) First off, I just wanted to thank you for reading my articles. I applied for this position on a whim, and in the end, I am very glad I had the opportunity to do so. Mount Saint Mary’s has served me very well, and although I am leaving, I would first like to reminisce on "the good old days."

During my time at the Mount, I have been involved in very few things, but things that have been very impactful in my adult life’s early stages. I came in as an English secondary education major, and took some English classes because they were my strong suit. I enjoyed them and loved my professors, but I did not feel like I was becoming a better student. It may sound very cheesy, but I felt a hole in my education. I found out very quickly that this was not what I was meant to do and not what I was cut out for. Teachers have a hard job, and I was most definitely not made to do what they do. Unfortunately, yet fortunately, I was not passionate about English anymore, and I just thought of it as another skill that I had. So I kept English on the back burner, wrote my article once a month, and kept soul searching.

I conversed with my friends and advisor to try and think about other options in my education, and I went through many phases that surrounded the idea of being a pilot and flying. If you have read previous articles by me in the past, you know that I have my pilot’s license, and it is one of my greatest passions. I found throughout this year of my soul searching, I realized that this is what I wanted to do full-time all along. I was missing it, and I wanted it back.

The end of the fall semester rolled around this year, and I researched my options. When I initially applied to college, I fully committed to Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach, Florida. It is practically the star school for aviation and the school that is the most renowned in the field. I was not very keen on moving all of the way to Daytona, as I have never really moved around that much in my life. Besides, living in York, Pennsylvania, I am not very much a part of the hyped-up Daytona Beach culture. I am not a partier, I am not a hot-weather gal. One would say I am quite the opposite of Florida, and I was very anxious about the move. I thought that I would get over this fear of moving from my hometown, my family, and everything that is familiar to me. Nevertheless, it was $500 in college deposits later, and I found myself astronomically scared to go to Embry-Riddle, so I changed my mind and chose the Mount instead, which was a very great decision that I made, although a financially taxing decision. So, after me not waiting to go far for school, I realized that my options were limited for flight school. Living in Central, PA makes my options very minimal, because there are not many flight schools around that weren’t crazy expensive.

Throughout my search, though, I found a small college in Lancaster named Eastern Mennonite University, where I am going to go for the next four years to get my bachelor’s in leadership and organizational management with an aviation concentration. With this degree, I will have the availability to get a job in the business field, or a job within the aviation realm. In the aviation industry, this is a stellar degree to get because, with my prospective job with being in the airlines, they like to know that you are a safe pilot, that you are organized, and can manage the cockpit efficiently.

At Eastern Mennonite University, my days will be different than one’s average day at the Mount, since I will not be a regular college student. The school is actually a school where I would be commuting, and I would also only have class one day a week. This class day makes me have availability open for my days where I have to fly, because flying is required three days separate from your class day. Since I have not flown consistently in about two years, my workload will be about double than the average student. This is because at this point in my training, I am not sure where I am rusty and where I am proficient, so finding that happy medium where I am able to safely re-enter the field will be a little more complicated because of the sheer amount of information that is thrown at you in the private pilot course.

It will be a stressful time for me, but I couldn’t be more thankful that I found where my heart truly lies. I needed much guidance in my college decision path and I finally feel comfortable where I am at, and I would like to thank you, who is reading this, because you were one of my motivators in this strenuous process; to you, I thank you.

So, I would like to tell my fellow college kids out there reading this, or parents/friends of them, to really support your children in their endeavors, even if it may seem like something which is foreign to you. Don’t ever be afraid to try and deviate from the norm of everyday life. If you miss it, do it again. I hope that my story has made you really think about that thing that you were itching to do or start; I challenge you to do it. Life is short, so do what you love; for me, what I love means changing my future and hopping on a plane. The sky is literally your limit, and you should explore it.

Best of luck, and I hope for you to read from me again soon.