When I Look Back at Twenty

This song supplements my story "25 Years Since ERAU"
online in the Reflections section of Embry-Riddle
Aeronautical University's EaglesNEST alumni magazine.

Words by Mark L Berry & Music by Joanne Gabriel
Performed by Joanne Gabriel

MLB and 5471W — MLB at 20 with Dad’s Piper Cherokee

When I Look Back at Twenty – lyrics

When I look back at twenty
Now that I’m forty-five
I think of all I’ve been through
And that I’m lucky to be alive

MLB Blue Shirt 2 — MLB reflecting at age 45

I can still picture classmates
Whose aircraft broke apart
I’m still doing what they loved
And carry them in my heart

If I was twenty again
And could see me today
Would I be proud of myself
That I’d turned out okay?

I became the pilot
I wanted to be
I’ve seen of the world
What I wanted to see

But what else have I become
As I look at what’s me
The wandering branch
Of my family tree

When I look back at twenty
Now that I’m forty-five
The lesson I’ve learned
Is how to survive

And now I look forward
At what’s still to be
And when I look back from sixty
If I’ll still recognize me

Here’s Joanne performing it live in France:

Here’s Joanne’s psychedelic mix video of this song:

13,760 Feet–My Personal Hole in the Sky

**13,760 Feet*–My Personal Hole in the Sky***