[Verse]
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My parents must have thought they had a crazy kid
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'Cause I was one of those kids who always knew what I wanted
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They took me down to the airport to see all the planes departing
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Watching them fly something inside of me was starting
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I was eight when I told them that I'd be a pilot
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But I was too young and too short
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And there were no female captains
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And my dad said, "be patient" he said, "just see what happens"
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But I took my first lesson came down from the sky
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And told my father I'd fly for the rest of my life
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And I got my first job flying for a mortician
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In a tiny bonanza, just a corpse and me
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Five dollars an hour for flying dead bodies
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I had to climb over their faces just to get to my seat
[Pre-Chorus]
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And suddenly the wheels lift off
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The ground is falling backwards
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I am suddenly alive
[Chorus]
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Suddenly I'm in the cockpit
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Suddenly everything's changed
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Suddenly I'm not too young or too short
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And the passengers in the back don't complain
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Suddenly I'm flying company charters
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Suddenly everything's high
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Suddenly there's nothing in between me and the sky
[Verse]
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American Airlines had the prettiest planes
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So I applied as a flight engineer
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But the World War II pilots, they all complained
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They said, "girls shouldn't be in the cockpit"
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"Hey lady, hey baby, hey! Why don't you grab us a drink?"
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And the flight attendants weren't my friends back then
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And they said, "Are you better than us, do you think?"
[Pre-Chorus]
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But I kept getting hired
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And the World War II crew, they retired
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And the girls all thought much higher of me
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1986 the first female American captain in history
[Chorus]
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Suddenly I'm in the cockpit
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Suddenly I've got my wings
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Suddenly all of those pilots protested me
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Well they can get their own drinks!
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Suddenly there's no one saying "stay grounded"
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Looking down, passing them by
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Suddenly there's nothing in between me and the sky
[Bridge]
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Suddenly I've got an all female crew
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The news talked, it made headlines across the world
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Suddenly it stopped
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No one saying, "You can't" or "You won't"
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Or "You know you're not anything 'cause you're a girl"
[Outro]
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Suddenly I'm getting married
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And we're putting pins on the map where we've flown
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Suddenly I am a mother
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And suddenly shocked at how much they've grown
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Suddenly I'm wondering how my parents would feel
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Seeing me teaching men to be pilots
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'Cause suddenly I am a senior instructor and somehow I'm 51
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Suddenly I'm flying Paris to Dallas
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Across The Atlantic and feeling calm
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When suddenly someone on air to air traffic says
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"At 8:46 there's been a terrorist action"
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And the one thing I loved more than anything was used as the bomb
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Suddenly I'm in a hotel
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Suddenly something has died
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Suddenly there's something in between me and the sky