After being invited to join the Air Force on a three day all-inclusive trip from April 9 to April 12 in Texas to tour their bases, biomedical sciences teacher Perry Revlett is using his experience to honor the opportunities he has been given throughout his life.

Revlett was one of nine people selected in the United States to participate in this experience. In order to be selected, you must be nominated. All of the individuals selected are educators; they range from school principles to counselors.

“It was kind of crazy [the moment I was selected],” Revlett said. “I actually saw the email here [in my classroom].”

Revlett was given the opportunity to test drive a helicopter during his trip. Making sure it was safe, he lifted off into the sky and flew for several minutes.

“You knew you weren’t going to hurt anybody or do anything to the equipment,” Revlett said. “When you’re flying, you’re in blue skies and you’re kind of like okay, so it gives you that feeling like ‘hey, you know this is pretty cool’.”

Using the trip to bond with his peers, Revlett connected with the other people accepted and felt he knew them his whole life.

“We just got to be like buddies,” Revlett said. “We became mesh because we would feed off of each other like I would say something goofy and here’s Rob (another participant) he says something back.”

Using this time to reflect on his life, Revlett used this as an eye opener. He described this as a once and a life time opportunity he could not pass up.

“In my reality world, you don’t get to do things like this very often,” Revlett said. “My time is kind of getting to the point where I won’t be able to do it as much as I used to.”