I first heard this song when it debuted in September 1987. I had been in Canada just over a month, starting Grade 13 in high school. I had already graduated from high school in the suburbs of Houston, Texas, and now I was beginning high school all over again in a new country.
My family had moved to East York, in the Greater Toronto Area. Living in a big city was a first for me, and I enjoyed the freedom of traveling downtown on streetcars and subways. In Houston, I lived in the suburbs, so city life was made with visits to downtown –infrequent and car-dependent.
For the first time, I was within walking distance of my school. My parents had rented a semi-detached house in an older neighborhood, complete with radiator heaters, creaky stairwells, and tiny rooms. We would only live there for ten months, but it was more than enough time for me to explore every inch of Toronto.
Learning to Fly became the soundtrack for that new chapter of my life in Canada. I even used it in a skydiving video –a fitting tribute to the sense of freedom and discovery I felt at the time.
To this day, it remains my favorite Pink Floyd song –a perfect marker of beginnings, adventure, and the thrill of stepping into the unknown.
