Success! - A Newly Certificated Pilot!

After 20 years of dreaming the dream has been fulfilled! Today I sat for my Private Pilot checkride; and I passed! It was a challenging experience, and I learned a lot. My DPE was tough but fair. She did a good job of revealing my knowledge deficiencies. I had a big brain freeze on Airmets and Sigmets (weather warnings to pilots). I was expecting the question, "what are the three types of Airmets," and she asked somthing like "tell me some examples of Sigmets and Airmets." For some reason I named a couple of sigment weather phenomenon under airmet. I'll give it up to nervousness.
Otherwise, I did very well with the oral portion of the test.
The practical portion was what you would expect after having read the Practical Test Standards (PTS). We did: Dead Reckoning / Pilotage; diversion to alternate airport, slow flight, approach and departure stalls, steep turns, turns around a point, unsual attitudes, simulated IFR descending turns, emergency procedures, soft field take off and landings, short field take off and landings.
We were flying along, and she pulled the power and said our engine died. I quickly trimmed to best glide speed and began looking for an open field. I looked to my right and my left, and picked a slightly rough clear field. I worked my check list, and descended until she told me to go around. Then she pointed out that the airport had been right in front of me! Sometimes things ARE right under your nose!
The last manuever was a short-field landing. When my wheels touched down and she told me to taxi to parking, I knew that I had passed! It was an incredible relief to have the practical test over and to hear her say congratulations! All my hard work over the last 8 months and studying over the last two years had paid off.
During the debrief, she gave me some excellent feedback on areas I need to be attentive to. Attending to her comments will make me a safer pilot; I am thankful for that.
I have a number of people I need to express my gratitude. First is my wife Brooke. When she told me at Christmas that it was time to pursue my dream, she gave me an incredible gift. This has been one of the most challenging and rewarding things I have ever done. My three children have also been very supportive and have loved seeing their dad fulfill a dream. My CFI Jerry is an incredible teacher with an encouraging approach to instructing. He believed I could do it; and because he believed in me, I could believe in myself. I know that he would not have released me for the test if he didn't think I could do it. This gave me the confidence I needed. I look forward to doing my instrument rating with him! I also want to thank my friend Robin who helped rekindle the dream that had long lain dorment. He has been a great cheerleader as I pursued the goal.

Well, I guess I am going to  have to change my "willfly1day" to willfly2day"