Learn to fly a plane.

“My first solo flight! The realization of a dream! Forty-six years old and I was feeling more like 16! I wanted to jump up and down, but my six-foot-four-inch frame doesn't have lots of room for gymnastics in a Cub. As I leveled into the crosswind leg a blur roared past. The guy on the long IFR downwind approach had arrived! Breathe. Everything is OK. Seconds ago I was on top of the world, and now I was almost frozen with fear. Could I handle this? It suddenly sunk in how desperately alone I was.”

“Once in the air (and somewhat removed from civilization), I had a chance to take control of the plane and “fly” it. And here, I encountered the thing that surprised me the most about this entire experience: flying (in comfortable weather with slow winds, once I was in the air) feels fairly intuitive. [...] The up/down elevator controls felt surprisingly intuitive after a few minutes. I was occasionally surprised when I changed the pitch by mistake, but other than that, it seemed, dare I say, straightforward.”

“Learning to fly was by far the most incredible thing I’ve ever done. It was also the hardest thing I’ve ever done. And the scariest thing I’ve ever done, but I’ve never been prouder of myself. [...] I had days where I completely dreaded getting into the airplane, because I didn’t think I could do this. But I told myself this was way too important to avoid, and to just get to the hangar and then decide. Every single time I went to the hangar and looked at the airplane, I couldn’t cancel my lesson. I had to at least try again.”