Top Gun is on. I love this movie! It's one of the movies that I can quote just about line-for-line. When it shows up, I generally tune in and watch.

May 1986. Me and my buddy Scott Hickman decided to go see the latest fighter pilot movie, even if it was about Navy pilots. We lived in an Air Force town, and I had the usual military branch bias. I had planned on attending the United States Air Force Academy—I had a recommendation...but things didn't turn out that way. My medical history included the allergy shots that I took every Tuesday morning for about 6 years, and that was enough to disqualify me. I guess they didn't want their pilots sneezing into the oxygen masks. Whatever...

I was pretty crushed at the time. I thought that I had things figured out. I believed that flying was my dream. What do you do when the dream dies?

Tonight I was talking with a friend who's in the AFROTC program at Penn State. We were discussing this very chapter of my life, and I found myself wondering how different would my life be if I had gotten a shot at the Academy. Where would I be now? Would I have found Kim? Would we have our kids?

Sometimes the very things that I think I want can take me far away from the path that God has marked out for me. I don't believe that there is one and only one “right way” for us; but I do believe that God has a “best path.” Sometimes he has to get creative to steer me in that direction. I'm glad that he does.

I never want to get to the point where I'm not teachable.

And I still think that Kelly McGillis (or the character, dialogue, and plot-line) is absolutely ridiculous. That almost makes me want to change the channel. Almost...