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A girl who grew up in a war zone, a girl who was once afraid of planes conquered the world and set up a record of her own, on her own.

Meet Captain Shaesta Waiz – a Girl Who Took ‘Sky is the Limit’ Extremely Seriously and Did Something she Never Thought she Could!

Born in the Kabul, Afghanistan’s refugee camp, Shaesta, and her family fled the Soviet-Afghan war and shifted to California, the USA in 1987. Years later, she became the first in her family to get a bachelor’s and a master’s degree. The story of her conquests doesn’t end here – Shaesta is also the first-ever woman from Afghanistan to become a certified civilian pilot. In addition to these laurels, the record of being the youngest female pilot ever to complete a solo flight around the world goes to Shaesta Waiz.

Because of what Shaesta saw at a young age in the war-inflicted Afghanistan, as a child, she was terrified of seeing aeroplanes, especially after an aircraft incident she saw on the news. At the age of 19, Shaesta traveled. on a plane for the first time.

“I thought this airplane was going to launch into the sky like a rocket. I said to my mom, ‘I hope I never ever have to fly in an airplane,'” she said. “I was so scared and terrified.”

Conquering what Shaesta did is Nothing Ordinary for Women, Especially for those Who Share the Background of a Conservative Mindset

Shaesta had her fair share of struggles growing up as a woman with dreams.

“I struggled (as a girl) with dreams, and I thought … a woman like me, the best thing to do is have kids … so they might do something grand,” stated Shaesta who grew up watching women of her family become housewives and nothing else. In addition to her own struggles, the extended family demotivated the pilot as well.

“Women do not belong in the cockpit,” my uncle told me once and my grandmother would say, “what Afghan man would want to marry a woman who flies?”

As stated by the National Geography, Shaesta finished her 138-day trip last week after visiting 22 countries, including Afghanistan which hadn’t seen after she flew to the States.

Adding more to inspire people, Shaesta is the founder of Dreams Soar, a nonprofit organization which inspires women and girls to take on STEM education.

Women like Shaesta Waiz are definitely breaking stereotypes and continue motivating others to do so. Fly high, Captain Waiz!