Alina Angel Chasing New Dream Guide

“I threw up after my third lesson,” she admits, laughing. “My instructor, a retired Air Force pilot named Vlad, just looked at me and said, ‘Good. Now you know your limit. Tomorrow we push past it.’ That’s the same language my gymnastics coach used.”

“We put so much pressure on young athletes to define themselves by their sport,” she writes in her latest post. “But a dream is not a destination. It’s a direction. You can change direction. You can climb higher. You just have to be brave enough to let go of the last bar and reach for the next one.” alina angel chasing new dream

“On the competition floor, everything is measured. The music, the space, the time,” she explains. “In the wilderness, flying a small plane, nothing is measured. You read the wind, the clouds, the land. It’s the most free I have ever felt.” “I threw up after my third lesson,” she admits, laughing

The new dream is aviation. Two years after her retirement, Alina is a student pilot, logging hours toward her commercial license. The transition from elite athlete to aviator seems radical, but to those who know her, it makes perfect sense. Tomorrow we push past it