Private Pilot Checkride Anticlimax?

Today...I passed my Private Pilot Checkride!! But those double exclamation points bely my enthusiasm. When I was done, an instructor said, "How does it feel?". In thinking about my feelings, my thought was, anticlimactic. For most of you that know or can read about in my Flying Thank You Tour link, I recently got my Sport Pilot Certificate in October of last year (2014) and this after a long 10 year journey. But initially this ride had been to get a Private Pilot Certificate in 2004! So why not the elation, the triumph, the spectacular celebration? Well I did celebrate a little...I splurged and had a small DQ Butterfinger Blizzard in honor of the examiner, Jack Taylor! :-)

So was I nonplussed? Jaded? Maybe tired and a bit exhausted after all of the training? Maybe...but later, after my celebratory beer to go with my ice cream (hey it was a Chocolate Stout so it went with the ice cream...don't judge me) and musing on my feelings, I started thinking about the next goal which is to get my Sport Pilot Flight Instruction Certificate. And there it was...the elation, the triumph, the wonder. I am soooo, so excited to begin the journey of a Flight Instructor that the Private Pilot Certificate was not a letdown it was just almost completely and overwhelmingly swamped by my desire to instruct and give people the ability to fly, the ability to be bigger than their dream. My dream came true and I morphed, manifested into it like a man stepping into the future from the past merging with his older self but at the same time walked into the future unknown, excited for what is possible. I cannot wait to begin this next journey! It just can't take 10 years and won't.