My name is Michael Varney and I am a senior in the Aviation Management Technology program at Eastern Michigan University. I started my education Washtenaw Community College and I did not have much of an idea where my future was headed. After spending a couple years taking general education classes someone invited me to the air show at Willow Run. Once I got there I knew immediately that I wanted something to do with airplanes.

The week after the air show I spent quite a bit of time researching flight lessons and schools and stumbled across Eastern’s aviation program, within the week I transferred schools and registered with the program. Until recently however I was not sure what I wanted my career to look like. Like everyone else I’m sure, I have had fantasies about working here or there halfway around the world, or flying for this company or doing that, in the last few years I have had at least twenty different plans. It hasn’t been until very recently that I started to get an idea of what I truly wanted to do.

In the last few years I have taking a liking to writing and even wrote a paper for a literature class that was nominated for the Undergraduate Paper of the year, I did not win but even being considered for the award was a great honor. It has recently struck me to combine the two things that I like and pursue a career writing about aviation. I still wonder about the possibilities and what a career like that might have to offer but I suppose I’ll have to wait to find out.