Baggage Handler Dreams Of Being A Pilot And Refuses To Give Up
Have you ever followed a dream and seen it through to its completion? It’s a fantastic feeling when we can do something that we have always wanted to do.
Justin Mutawassim understands this, and he made great strides to follow his dream and he achieved it. His story is an inspiration to everyone, and it deserves to be told.
When Justin was only six years old, he started on his path to becoming an airline pilot. According to NBC News, he was on an airplane when the pilots invited him into the cockpit and he realized it was something he needed to do in life.
He fell victim to a rumor when he was in middle school, however, and that set him back for quite some time. Justin wore glasses, and his teacher said he had to have perfect vision to be a pilot.
According to the Washington Post, Justin said that he didn’t have the ability to fact-check it. He was now feeling beat up, deciding that he would go into broadcasting after he graduated in 2014.
Broadcasting did offer some fulfillment to Justin, but he still dreamed of working in the airline industry. That is when he got a job with Delta Airlines, hauling bags.
According to the Washington Post, in speaking about that job, he said: “Next thing you know, it turned into a year and a half of an awesome job.” He had a real passion for the airline industry, and he fell in love with the technical aspects of it.
He also admitted that it was a difficult job because it was physically demanding. Through it all, however, he still had the desire to become a pilot, and he learned more about them every day.
It was by chance that he met a man named Ivor Martin as he was riding in an employee bus in Dallas. Martin worked for Virgin America, and as they chatted on the bus, Justin got his chance.
He told Martin about his dream to become a pilot, and Martin invited him over to his home. Not only did he sit with him, but he also became his mentor, and together, they put a plan in place that would allow him to follow his dream.
With Martin’s help, Justin was able to put in his application for flight school. He did well academically and went through 1,500 hours of flight time to get his commercial pilot’s license.
His first job was with Republic Airways, a regional airline. In 2018, he went with a startup, Breeze Airways, and then he set his sights on Delta in 2021. That was after Delta dropped their college degree requirement, and Justin took advantage of it immediately. He was a pilot with Delta by 2022.
This one has been 6 long years in the making.
How it started How it’s going pic.twitter.com/wXqN8lITE3
— Never Enough Legroom (@j_muta) September 30, 2022
Justin put a picture on Twitter that showed him as a ramp agent and then as a pilot. It was captioned: “This one has been 6 long years in the making. How it started / How it’s going.”
He shared the picture to encourage some friends and let them know what was happening in his life. He wasn’t expecting it to go viral, but it did and in the process, it became an inspiration for thousands.
