Beginnings.....

Every journey must come to an end and every end marks a new beginning. In May 1996, this journey began when I joined GAMCO as the Manager of Quality Assurance after eighteen years with Royal Jordanian. Amman was home and will always be.

Sixteen and half years and three jobs later it is about to end. I was forty when I came to the UAE, I used to joke and say; life starts at forty. Life in the Emirates had its ups and downs, but it was fun. Abu Dhabi is a great place to raise kids. The UAE became another place we call home.

Now, it is about to end and a new beginning at a place we learned to also call home, Sterling Heights, Michigan. As of mid January 2013 I will relocate and the chances are I will be on my own, a daunting thought. Scared, damn right but more importantly very excited. Aviation, is a tough business, now more than ever but every challenge is an opportunity.

I want to take this opportunity, regardless of what I am doing, I plan to mentor young men and women who made or want to make aviation their career, maybe teach. Help them rediscover the spirit that my generation had when we were young. The drive and passion that we had for an industry that is now reduced to numbers and shareholders equity. Somewhere along the way we all forgot that there are stakeholders other than shareholders who are as important if not more important.

We all forgot that aviation is about people, people who fly, maintain, build aircraft and all those who make it happen. It is about people who dare to dream and live the dream. It is about people who fly to their dream vacations or to conclude the business deal of their life; to people flying to new beginnings, challenges and opportunities.

Autumn

I grew up in Jordan and Autumn was not the colourful season, Spring was the great colourful season. I went to college in Southern California (LA) and there was not an Autumn country either. Then of course the UAE where Autumn is remembered for the cooling down of the weather.

There is nothing like a North American Autumn. My first one was in 1977, I graduated and my sister was going to Bryn Mawr. The whole family was in Philadelphia, it was late September and for the first time I saw the colours of Autumn, such an overwhelming cacophony (I like this word, I know it has to do with sound and not sure it is the right one) of colours.

There were the few remaining greens but then the yellows, browns, oranges, reds and everything in between. I was so thrilled, it has left an everlasting impression, even though I am a colour blue person.

It was not until we moved to Michigan in 2004 that I had the time to take in all these colours, I remember walking with my son from school one after noon, a distance of no more than a mile and a half, and we collected more than 20 leaves of different shades and colours. Imagine, all of that in a mile and half.

Nothing compares to Fall in Michigan it is an experience in the beauty of nature, a true feast for the eyes.