Looking on the Bright Side

I want to take a moment to thank those of you who chose to encourage and support Aaron during this last year and a half that he has been working toward becoming an air traffic controller. It has meant a lot to both of us.

Unfortunately, we learned today that Aaron was not selected. You might be wondering why. I am not going to whine or complain, but I do want to explain what happened. After all, he scored decently on his AT-SAT, he has two different aviation degrees, and he has experience as a pilot. 

Before Aaron started ATC school, he did research and talked to air traffic controllers to find out that:

1.   The FAA has semi-annual hiring panel. 
2. That only graduates of FAA Certified Training Initiative schools could be hired 
3. That candidates must be hired by their 31^st birthday. 

Being the amazing husband that he is, it was hard for him to leave his full-time job that helped pay our mortgage, put food on the table, and provided health insurance to pursue a career path that we both knew might not pan out. Let’s be real—he was 29 when he started schooling and he would have had to be hired within 24 months. It was a risk. We knew this. In fact, about three weeks before we moved for him to go to air traffic control school, he told me he was having serious reservations about doing it, so he almost didn’t. I talked him into it. 

So, a couple of months into ATC school, Aaron found out the FAA was on a hiring freeze and would be pushing the fall hiring panel to spring. It didn’t seem like it would affect him. Then, the spring panel was pushed back to the next fall. Inconvenient, but not impossible. Then that one didn’t happen, either. He was optimistic. Surely at this point, he thought, they would have a ton of openings. Finally, in January, they announced that there would be a new hiring panel this month. Yay! Right? Well, not really. 

The FAA recently severed its hiring contracts with the CTI program and decided to open the panel to anyone and everyone—completely disregarding the individuals who had spent years in school to meet the qualifications. In other words, any American citizen between 18-30 years old could apply. And they did. In hordes. Also, like most (if not all) government jobs, preference is given to veterans. For approximately 1,200 open positions, over 50,000 veterans applied. The selection process was completed by computers in less than 5 days. So, that’s that. This wouldn't seem so crappy if he had been turned down because there were better applicants in the pool of CTI grads. However, since the FAA just changed their hiring policy, it sucks to know that someone who was flipping burgers at McD's last week and hasn't a clue about any of it very well might have beaten Aaron out of his dream job.

I don’t want to complain. Yes, it’s disappointing. Yes, we feel like we both wasted a year and a half working toward something that didn’t happen. And we definitely feel like we just flushed another 6 grand down the toilet. And hunny, if you’re not married, let me explain why I keep saying “we”. When you’re married to the person you love, you are one. Trials, triumphs, failures, victories, sadness and joy are shared. When your spouse hurts, you hurt by extension. 

But like every other bad situation in life, “It can make you bitter, or it can make you better.” Disappointments have struck before and they will again. So, I’m choosing to believe this very comforting truth:

“Meanwhile, the moment we get tired in the waiting, God’s Spirit is right alongside helping us along. If we don’t know how or what to pray, it doesn’t matter. He does our praying in and for us, making prayer out of our wordless sighs, our aching groans. He knows us far better than we know ourselves, knows our pregnant condition, and keeps us present before God. That’s why we can be so sure that every detail in our lives of love for God is worked into something good.” –Romans 8:28

Thanks again!