not a how-to formula

6 months.

I realized at work today that I have been employed as a mechanic for 6 months. When I was in school, that was longer than a semester. Its twice as long as I was in Kenya, and half the amount of time I lived in Anchorage. I worked at the kitchen store in Anchorage for 6 months. All those things seemed to be significant chunks of my life. But when I compare it with the quick breath that has been my time here, it seems so short.

Of course, the majority of my time is spent working in the hangar. The first three months we were working on our major overhaul project: the navajo. After it went on the flight line, we slowly worked through some annuals, as well as events on our active fleet. Even slower than the pace of winter maintenance is my learning curve. Weeks went by where I would complete routine service items, simply because that is all I felt confident doing. Then I would decide to branch out into more interesting projects, and feel like I was wasting everyone else's time asking them questions. But slowly, ever so slowly, I have started to feel like I know what I am doing. Not that I am an expert, but a bit of confidence is dawning. It took 6 months. I am sure in another 6 months I will look back on this point and see how much more I understand. It's a process, and it comes to everyone in different amounts of time.

I still make lots of mistakes, and I am sure there are plenty more for me to make. I'm terribly slow. I drop tools all the time (especially when someone warns me against dropping them in that particular location). You should see the mess I make whenever I try to change the oil.

I am looking forward to what the next 6 months holds.