<![CDATA[STELLA'S7STORIES® - Head in the Clouds]]>

Piloting Priorities

I’ve been spending more time in the air with Lizzy as Stella takes a bit of a break from flying. This has been such a fun & amazing experience and it reminds me why it’s important not to put short timelines on some of our goals, especially as moms. I’ve wanted to fly for a long time now and just never made it a priority. Creating this content pushes me to do so.

Although it would have been great to get up in the air earlier in life, I’m not sure that I would have been ready. Stella started flying with Lizzy at just 7 years old. For me, waiting this long to fly was never intentional; however, it just sort of makes sense now.

This last flight with Lizzy was on Mother’s Day, and it was a good reminder that shifting priorities don’t necessarily equate to unaccomplished goals. Sometimes, stuff just takes a bit longer to get to. So, for all the moms out there, keep pursuing your goals even if it means slowly chipping away at them when you have time to do so. Write them down, refer back to them, be generous with some timelines, and know that patience is often rewarded.

On that note: Happy belated Mother’s Day to all!

Stella's7Stories

I also wanted to delve a bit into why I create what I create and to provide a bit of background as to why I started Stella’s7Stories in the first place.

When Stella was young, I always felt that there was a lack of really relatable characters. Much of what exists for young people is fictional. I get why. However, I wanted to take all of the unique experiences that Stella has had as a young person, package them, and turn them into creative content that other young people could potentially learn from. Stella’s 13 now, but she’s experienced more adventure and travel than some people do in a lifetime. She’s lived in the Arctic, she’s travelled to several continents and countries, and she’s continuing to learn to fly small planes. She’s taught herself to solve a Rubik’s Cube, skateboard, free skate and dabble in learning languages in addition to English & French. I wanted Stella’s7Stories to be about a young & adventurous female character who challenges traditional gender norms, takes risks, goes on adventures, learns, grows and gets to experience new people and places. I wanted to take Stella’s experiences learning Japanese, cubing, travelling, surfing, skiing and flying and use these as a springboard to create meaningful and easy-to-understand content for other young people.

As I’ve said before, most people don’t have access to a pilot like Lizzy; however, Stella’s experiences flying with Lizzy don’t just need to stay between them. This is why Lizzy works hard to teach Stella what she’ll eventually need to know for ground school, and why I then take these lessons and repackage them here. It’s helping prepare Stella and other young people to learn more about flight. As an added bonus, I also get to learn alongside Stella too, and that’s the super cool thing. All of her lessons are like a two-for-one. Most of the time, I’m absorbing all that I can at each of her lessons so that I can learn alongside her and then practice and reinforce what was taught. This includes everything from previous coding classes to online Japanese language classes to flying to basketball to life guarding and tennis.

I didn’t take many lessons growing up, so it’s fun for me to sit in on all of these things now. This is why I look forward to her extracurricular activities - because it’s a chance for me to learn something new or to brush up on an existing skill. I have a passion for lifelong learning and for distilling what’s complex into simpler forms. This is what I’m trying to accomplish here with this content.

That being said, I hope that it’s propelled some viewers to pursue their own passions, learn more, and to spend more time as a creator of content and less time as a consumer. Don't get me wrong though, I absolutely appreciate all those who spend time consuming this content.

Thank you!

As I look back at my journey as a mom, I think that this past Mother’s Day helps to put it all into perspective. Despite devoting a lot of time and energy to motherhood, I still find time to fuel my own interests - flying, dance, drawing, hiking, photography, tennis, skiing and travel.

Spending an hour in the plane last Sunday reminded me that regardless of age, it’s good to continue to take risks, to push yourself out of your comfort zone, and to not become static or stagnant. Know that sometimes you'll race toward your goals and other times you'll merely inch toward them. Either way, it’s progress.

This is the 30th lesson that I’m posting. That’s progress.

Now on to the content.

This posting includes mostly images of Niagara Falls, Fort Erie, the tulip fields in NOTL and two fortifications - Fort George NHS & Fort Niagara. It's a bit nostalgic given that I worked at Fort George NHS & Brock’s Monument for a few summers over twenty years ago.
It’s always fun to see these places from above & to continue to put everything into perspective.

Enough with the reminiscing and writing.

Are you ready for an adventure?