I was sucked along in the shadow of my closest friend at school who got a Flying Scholarship. We used to fly a lot together, me as passenger and sometimes as very incompetent navigator. When he joined the RN to become a Sea Vixen pilot I did not have the guts to follow that and went into a boring career in industry instead. I nearly got back on the same road as him thirty odd years later when he tried to persuade me to learn to fly a Vampire at Swansea. I wish!
I've always been an opportunist and eventually learned to glide and became an instructor and then got a PPL. Now, newly retired, I am buying a share in a group aircraft and am hoping to make up for lost time until the money or medical run out.
Having missed my chance to try for a professional or military flying career I have tried to encourage all my kids to go for it if they want it. One has taken up a flying career in the Navy.