Kids.
Tower Dogs story is fascinating, and you should listen.
Non English as a primary language, so I'm guessing Puerto Rican.
Flunked out of all schools, and didn't finish High School.
Worked merchant ship and taxi driver jobs.
Got into flying in the late 1970s.
Worked in the Islands flying all kinds of junk.
Worked his way up to Boeing 747 Captain. I'm guessing Evergreen, Polar, Kalitta.
Then joined the US Major airlines.
Don't tell me you can't make it.
If you can't you didn't try.
Nobody starts a rock band without wanting to be as big as The Beatles.
Nobody starts flying without wanting to join your favorite airline.
But if you don't quite make it all the way, you'll have great fun, and have the time of your life trying.
It's a big world out there, with lots of things to do.
Find your path, and follow your dreams.
Life is easier with a clear destination in mind.
Which brings me to another story.
I was a former aircraft engineering apprentice in the mid 1970s from a small village in England. I left for America during the deep recession in the early 1980s. By the early 1990s thru unbelievable good timing and luck I was a Captain at a major US airline.
My mother told me about her friends kid who was also a aircraft engineering apprentice for the same airline but ten years behind me from the same small village. He had been selected for the full scholarship program at Prestwick to become a pilot with that airline. He flunked out. He then went for some unbeknown reason to Zimbabwe to get a PPL and a CPL. Nothing ever good comes from going to Zimbabwe. With about 125 hours and no license to show for he he was back in the UK, and could I help?
So I sent him the Private Pilot written and oral test guide. My flight instructors license had lapsed, and didn't own a plane. But I fixed him up with a plane and an instructor. My exact words were 'be ready to take the written test the day after you come' 'we will take a few hours getting ready for the test, which you'll do next week'. 'you can stay with me, if you want whilst you hour build, but there are no schools around here to do an instrument rating as it's rural', 'so once you've got 200 hours we'll find you a school to go to and get a Comm/Inst/Multi'.
He was the laziest person I've ever come across. He had not even looked at the test question I had sent him. It took him six weeks to get a PPL as he only wanted to take one lesson a week and spend the rest of his time 'clubbing'. I couldn't wait to get rid of him. So much for interview selection processes.
The conversation has turned to 'Where are you supposed to get 1500 hours at in Europe?, and 'Why can't you flight instruct to 1500 hours in Europe?'
When I had my PPL in the UK in the late 1970s there were many flight instructors looking up at 300ft overcast wondering if they would ever get to 700 hours. There was a mechanic at the airline I worked for who had a very old Cessna 150 based in Florida that he rented out to other mechanics to hour build in. I flew that plane for about 120 hours in six weeks in Florida, when it had taken me one and a half years to get 120 hours in the UK. Things go quicker in America.