Taking Flight with JAKE MULLERY, E.N. EMT Director & Contributing Writer

My fascination with flight started when I was very young. I remember helping my dad carry our brand new television and setting it up in his room. After getting the power cord plugged in and the VHS tape for Top Gun inserted I found myself imagining the inside of a F-14 Tomcat.

Since that day I have always dreamt of breaking the sound barrier… needless to say that did not happen on my first hot air balloon ride. I did, however, appreciate a lesson in moving slower. High above the Moreno Valley in “Nerfer”, piloted by Mike Bertetto, I was able to appreciate the silence that one finds when they take on a new perspective to life’s imagined problems. The low hiss of the propane that kept the pilot lit and the roar that comes with a burst of fuel did little to interrupt the peace found drifting slowly somewhere between 500 to 1,500 feet in the air. As I admired Nature’s beauty from the sky, the cars and trucks that drove by honked and hollered in appreciation of Nerfer. Those petty problems that appear so large when on the ground shrink as you lift above and see them from a different angle. If there is one takeaway from this experience that I hope to hold onto it is to be kinder to each other and see whatever imagined problems for what they are, smaller than I had previously perceived.