The Sky’s the Limit

Airplanes have captivated me from a very young age. My friends loved playing with Barbie and Ken dolls, but nothing delighted me more as a kid than taking daily walks with my father past Aviation High School in the neighborhood where my family lived—Sunnyside, Queens. At the time, I was unaware that the students who studied there learned everything there was to know about airplanes. But I did understand how excited I felt when I gazed at the five, huge aircraft that sat on the ground behind the school. The planes were painted a vivid golden color that sparkled brightly in the sun. To add to the excitement, my father would point to planes passing overhead on their way into or out of New York City. Now I realize that those were not just special moments that I shared with my father; they were moments that foreshadowed my future.

I will never forget my first plane ride. I was five years old, and my family, who are Muslim, were traveling to Morocco. I remember a pretty brunette in a uniform coming over to my seat and asking me how I was enjoying the flight. I responded with a toothy grin that earned me a big smile and a chuckle. The stewardess reached into a cart and brought out a pencil case that she placed on my tray table. The pencil case had a black background. On the background was a sky-blue jet plane surrounded by an ivory moon and twinkling stars. The jet was smiling broadly and had a speech bubble next to it that said, “Bon Vol,” which means “Good Flight” in French. That pencil case sits in a place of honor on my desk to this day.

Needless to say, I had no doubt which high school I wanted to attend. But I had to apply to Aviation because it is a competitive high school, and many more kids apply to it than get in. My heart was thumping wildly when the letter arrived in the mail, and my hands were shaking as I tore it open. I shouted, “I made it!” as tears of joy slid down my cheeks. Many people told me that I wouldn’t be able to handle the work because it was a “man’s job.” I ignored their warnings and accepted the challenge enthusiastically. I spent the whole summer researching the school and friending anyone on Facebook who went there. I studied the different types of aircraft and memorized the parts of a Boeing 747. Until then, airplanes had been my passion. Now they were my obsession.

My first day of school was exhilarating. I picked out my favorite abaya, which to me is a symbol of self-respect. I wanted to make a self-confident impression on my teachers and my peers. Little did I know that a big surprise awaited me on that first day. Everywhere I looked, as I walked through the halls, I saw posses of guys. It turned out that only 16% of the students in my class were female. But I have never let that gender imbalance intimidate me.

On my very first shop project, I proved that I was as capable as any guy. Aviation has an extremely rigorous science and math program as well as shop classes in which students are required to construct actual parts of an aircraft. For that shop project, each student, working independently, had four months in which to build a component of an aircraft wing known as an aileron. By coming to school early on weekdays and going in on Saturdays over the course of more than three months, I was able to complete that project two weeks before it was due. Not only did I earn an A from my instructor, but many of the guys in the class asked me for help finishing their ailerons. With that early success, I completely shattered the myth that the work at Aviation was “too hard for girls.” Since then, my motto has been, “The Sky’s the Limit.”