Ahhh….a few days ago I was basking in my dreams of being a pilot, researching for flight schools, informing my friends beforehand on my impending exit from the office and arranging a timeframe to finish my Computer Science degree to hop on directly to pilot training. Sadly, it came across a bump in the road, the first one in a very long journey.

Philippine Airlines (PAL) Learning Center is probably the best school you can enroll to take a commercial pilot training course. According to what I’ve read and heard, training lasts for 16-18 months in a military-like condition. Students will live in Clark, Pampanga and can only go home on Saturday Afternoons up to Sunday evenings. During that course, students would undergo intense training and fly different types of aircraft to various locations in and out of the country. Sounds exciting right? Hell yeah, sign me up! I e-mailed them this morning to inquire about the tuition fee so that my parents could prepare thinking it’ll probably cost a lot. When somebody from the center replied back, I was surprised, it didn’t cost a lot…it costs a HOUSE AND LOT! 1.9 million, yes, MILLION pesos, payable in 4 equal payments. My world collapse…it’s over, my dream is shattered, I would have to be a computer programmer forever. My family is not that rich so I might as well forget it.

All sorts of ideas came rushing into my head…how much do our car cost? Do we still have other property we can sell? When’s the next lotto draw? Where can I sell my soul to the devil? I am seeing 2 solutions for this money problem: 1) Force my parents to sell our other properties and 2) Apply for a bank loan that is payable in 10 - 15 years. Number 2 is probably the most viable option since I can take over the payment once I earn my license and start earning money. When you think about it, paying that tuition is investment, like building a house or buying a piece of land, it will pay off in the later years multiple times the value. After all, an airline captain earns six-digit values a month.

I told my mom already and she’s still optimistic about the pilot thing but my dad is the decision-maker so he’s the one I have to persuade. I’m gonna tell him probably when I talk this through with my mom. Hey, there’s time to think, I won’t start probably until early next year.