I Believe I Can Fly

   Have you ever dreamed about flying? Matt Guthmiller, a 19-year-old student from South Dakota, has loved flying ever since he can remember. When he was too young to fly a real plane, he played flight simulator games. As he grew up, he worked hard at becoming a pilot. He reached this goal on his seventeenth birthday, when he got his pilot's license! 
Two years later, in May of this year, Matt had another goal - to set a world record! He would try to become the youngest person ever to fly solo around the world.  His trip would be a long one - he'd have a little more than a month to fly about 27,000 miles. Of course, this trip took lots of planning and preparation! Finally, everything was ready, and Matt took off from a California airport on May 31st.
His first stop was his hometown in South Dakota. Then he flew from America to Canada and, from there, over the ocean to Europe and Asia. June went by. He spent July 4th flying over the Australian outback, and finally crossed the Pacific, heading back to America. On the evening of July 14, he touched down at the same California airport he had started from, finishing his trip around the world. He had done it! 
Matt hopes to inspire other young people to try to do the things they’ve always wanted, and to show them that with a little confidence and a lot of hard work, dreams really can come true!

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