By day, I am a trial attorney representing people in felony criminal matters. At least for now. As a woman in a very male dominated field, I have been called lots of things. Some related to other, more ladylike professions – secretary, paralegal, interpreter, clerk, stenographer. Some profane – I won’t list those. If you don’t already know them, well, you’re lying. Some just generally derogatory. Dragon being one of those.

But I am not choosing to take that as a bad thing anymore. I will sit here on my pile of hoarded tools and guard my lair (that’s what I will be calling the hangar, I guess). Try to make problems for my project, you may get to see me breathe fire. But I digress.

The further I get into this project and this life, the more I recognize that there are a lot of people out there who want to pigeonhole women into what they believe their place should be. It is shocking to think that when I was in college, the role of fighter pilot was not available to me. I am not that old. No, really, I am not that old. When I was watching the Blue Angels at the Northern Colorado Air Show a few weeks ago and saw all the women as part of the team, I wondered if my life would have been any different if I could have had the option to fly those amazing jets. And that is when this whole RV idea started to take shape.

Women are still rare in aviation but not so rare that my building a plane is something ground breaking. But it is still unusual. And it shouldn’t be. I was talking to some friends earlier about why it is important for little girls to see women in roles like pilot. I was raised the spoiled only child of professional parents. I had every opportunity imaginable. And I had parents who told me I could be and do anything. Yet I still remember vividly the day Sandra Day O’Connor was sworn in to the Supreme Court. Because on that day, it wasn’t my parents telling me I could be anything. It was the whole society.

So little girls, take heed. If I can build this thing, so can you. And if you want to come drive a rivet or two, just let me know. There will be plenty to go around.