My father, Serge Sorokin Sr., was born in Tajikistan in 1958. The climate in Tajikistan is very similar to the climate in New York. It gets pretty hot in the summers and pretty cold in the winters.  In his childhood, televisions were already becoming popular and something that many families possessed. Although he had a TV, the shows during the 60’s were either not always running or dull and for adults so like most of the children his age, he found different forms of amusement.

My dad once told me a bedtime story many years ago and I still remember it to this day. He and his mom were walking home from the store and they were walking past a toy store. In the window my dad spotted a model military plane and instantly fell in love! The next week his mom came home from work and she was hiding something. After a minute of anticipation, she took out the plane and gifted it to him.

At that moment, a natural pilot was born. After having played with that model plane and many others in his childhood, he began to pursue his passion in airplanes. Long story short, he went to school for many years, trained countless hours, and finally became acommercial pilot for Baltic Air.

After moving to the United States in 1996, he gave up his passion to support our family in the new place we called home. Only 3 years ago, Serge Sr. began to fly again by getting his private pilot license. Now, every few weeks, my dad and I take our friend’s plane up and either circle around Manhattan or fly to any random place in the near by vicinity.