There's a glimmer of hope yet in your continued quest to be a pilot.

A ex-colleague of yours who is flying as in one of the local budget carrier spoke to you today regarding a window of opportunity. During a casual conversation with the licencing authority, he found out that the local budget carriers are facing a manpower crunch and are ramping up the recruitment.

Given that you are a licenced and type-rated pilot, he recommended for you to clear the 14 ATPL papers and go through the recurrent training to further your hiring chances. In fact he was so helpful that he offered to help facilitate link-ups with his one of flight school mate teaching ATPL subjects, a full-motion simulator provider (a former colleague of his in the airline) and an authorised flight examiner.

With the short window of opportunity, there's plenty which needs to be done. You would have to put in more effort to clear the 14 papers by 1Q2017 and apply for the job before it closes.

You met up with your school mate who is now a pilot with the national carrier over lunch yesterday. As with pilots, the conversation typically revolved around flying and your application status with the carriers.

As your friend shared his experiences flying with the carrier and the less than desired pay, you asked yourself whether you are prepared to give up what you have achieved so far and start all over again - as a pilot?

At this age of yours, your career should be in a stable mode without any disruption. Given that one's employability drops exponentially once the big 4 comes along, you are left with a short span of 5 years to:

a. Keep trying for that pilot job; or,

b. Give it up totally

Should you or should you not?

You know you have become the Figure 11 "darling" of Corporate HQ when colleagues, and even the senior management, "market" you to others of the opposite gender. Sometimes they get so zealous of it that you find it to be amusing.

While you have seen your fair share of 桃花 this year, not many has been able to catch your eye. Friends often chide you for having impossibly high standards but its better than having no standards. Even though it takes a lot to catch your attention, the sad part is that those whom have caught your eye either doesn't seem to be interested or prefer someone with the same religion.

Even though you are actively dating around and knowing people of the opposite gender, it takes a while for you to determine whether there's both emotional and intellectual connection. But one thing you have learnt is that you shouldn't compare any potential partner with the previous one. Every one is unique in their own way and its that uniqueness which caught you eye isn't it?

Learn from the past and embrace the future you shall..