BY SCOTT ANDERSON

Norman Taylor has learned one important life lesson that has taught him to “go with the flow.”

“Life’s not going to stop,” he said. “You’re not going to get a certain time back, so try to do as much as you can with your time.”

Taylor does a lot with his time. In August 2020, the 29-year-old artist sold his first painting. Elizabeth Eldridge, the mother of one of Taylor’s former teammates at C.E. Byrd High School, had seen a video of Taylor sketching.

“She was like, ‘If you ever wanted to get back to doing it for real, let me know. I would really like one,’” he said. “I’ve been rolling ever since.”

The Eldridge family not only bought a painting from Taylor. They helped him set up his business, too. He takes commissions for original paintings and sells prints of his work at notbyhand.us.

Art has been a longtime interest for Taylor. In second grade he entered the Talented Arts Program. But he didn’t fancy himself a painter.

“I never liked painting,” he said. “I just liked to sketch.”

He got serious about his art at Broadmoor Middle School. But he wasn’t thinking about becoming a professional artist. He had other dreams he was chasing on the football field.

“At 9 years old, I knew I was going to go to high school, get recruited and play at USC for Pete Carroll and then get drafted by the Chicago Bears,” Taylor said. “I knew what cars I was going to have — all of that.”

Life does not stop, but sometimes it changes directions without warning.

Taylor remembers Sept. 16, 2008, like it was yesterday. It was just two days after his 15th birthday. He was on the practice field, preparing for Byrd’s Week 3 matchup against West Monroe, when the unimaginable happened.

“We call it a sweep drill,” Taylor said. “It’s a form-tackling drill. “When I went down to tackle my teammate, whiplash — a freak accident.”

The doctor diagnosed it as a C7 incomplete spinal cord injury, meaning his spinal cord was still intact. It was better than a C7 complete, Taylor said.

“That means the spinal cord is completely severed,” he said of a C7 complete. “For them, it’s always that 0.000001… whatever percent chance. For me, the percentage for regaining movement was higher.”

Taylor was wheelchair bound when he returned to Shreveport. He began homeschooling that December to keep up with his classmates. That’s when the gravity of the situation began to settle on him.

“You drop into a certain depression,” he said. “From the time I got home, I didn’t really leave my room unless it was for a doctor’s appointment or to eat, or to be homeschooled. I didn’t feel like I needed to be social. I was afraid to go back because I was in a different physical state than I was at first.”

In April 2009, he returned to the Byrd campus. The plan was to be on campus for a few classes, up to half a day.

“I ended up the next day just going back full time,” Taylor said. “I realized when I got back, they were just so happy to see me it didn’t really matter.”

Taylor said he spent his junior year readjusting to being among a lot of people again. But that wasn’t his biggest challenge.

“I was having to deal with going to PT rather than going to practice,” he said. “It was a different type of working out, regaining my mobility.”

In his senior year, Taylor was discharged from rehab because his progress had plateaued, he said. “Like everybody else, you have fun your senior year,” he added.

He started college at LSUS the next fall. That was a wake-up call for him.

“Anybody can draw,” he said. “A lot of people think it’s something you’re born with. It’s really something you develop. They call it neuroplasticity. Those transmitters in the brain. You wonder why Floyd Mayweather is such a good boxer. It’s because he does the same thing over and over.”

In addition to being competitive, Taylor also is a perfectionist. So much so that in the early days of his art career, Taylor wouldn’t accept down payments for his work.

“I treasure quality over quantity,” Taylor said. “If it’s not up to what I like, I will have them throw it away and start over.”

Thomas Williams has been assisting Taylor since 2013 and has seen that perfectionism in action.

“People don’t know how many masterpieces he’s done that only the trash can has seen,” Williams said.

Williams admits to rescuing one of those works Taylor discarded. It hangs in the Williams house today. It’s a symbol of the respect Williams has for Taylor, his artwork, and his process.

“Me being with him all the time, assisting him and watching him, people don’t understand the process he goes through,” Williams said. “Seeing him go from a blank canvas to a finished painting, it’s amazing. I’m blessed every day to see him go through the process.”

Taylor has a job at General Dynamics. He continues to paint and anticipates having his first art show in February. He also is designing T-shirts and hoodies that feature his artwork.

BY DR. CLAUDIA ORELLANA

You planned to go to bed by 10:00 pm, yet you were doing the most random stuff until odd hours of the night. When you finally plopped into bed, your brain flooded with random thoughts. You forgot to set your alarm. In the morning, you sprung up in panic, late for a meeting for which you should have prepared for weeks ago. You went through a mountain of unfolded clothes to get dressed. You tried to jump into your car but didn’t have your keys. You reviewed your mental checklist of must haves. You brainstormed your presentation as you sped down the road, not seeing a stop sign. 

In the meeting, words flowed out of your mouth. No one noticed your internal turmoil. You finally took a breath when the meeting was over. After this initial rush, you made yourself catch up with the 2,328 emails in your inbox. You were 10 emails away from finishing when you realized you were late again for your child’s game. You are now hungry, and in need of a bathroom, but have no time to eat or use the restroom.

If this sounds like you, you probably feel overwhelmed, but do not beat yourself down. The should-haves, must-haves, and could-haves may cycle in your head like hungry hyaenas having a feast, devouring your self-esteem, but this wave of shame and guilt only makes you more overwhelmed. However, you are not alone. 

BY ADAM BAILEY

Shreveport, LA. Incorporated in 1982 by Mike Stanberry, Metro Aviation is a ‘family-owned, Louisiana-born’ helicopter charter, flight training, and maintenance operation. Their entry into the air medical service business came in November 1983 when Metro purchased two used Hughes 500-D model helicopters and entered into a long-term agreement to provide helicopter ambulance service for Schumpert Medical Center here in Shreveport.

The rest, they say, is history—40 years in the making.

Quality Values. Metro Aviation’s story is about people and persistence. Over the last four decades, Metro’s President and CEO Mike Stanberry has been told his ideas were crazy and unrealistic more times that he can remember. His confidence in his team and ability to keep going when everyone else said “no,” took Metro from a small trailer in Baton Rouge to the largest traditional air medical operator in the world. 

As an air medical operator, Metro provides highly skilled pilots and mechanics for programs across the country. Additionally, its Shreveport-based completion center outfits helicopters for not only air medical programs, but law enforcement, utility, and VIP customers.

“Few companies can provide the many services, dedication, stability, and excellence that Metro Aviation offers when it comes to owning and operating aircraft,” says Mike Stanberry. “Metro currently operates more than 160 aircraft for hospitals, health systems, and ambulance companies in more than 28 states, coast-to-coast, including the District of Columbia.

Metro employees are solid and perhaps the largest factor to the company’s four decades of success. “Mike has an uncanny ability to hire the right people, and it’s not just about the right people for the job, but the right people for our culture,” says Marketing Director Kristen King Holmes. “Everyone genuinely cares about each other. We participate in meal trains when there’s a new baby or a spouse is sick, take up donations when homes are demolished due to hurricanes, and Mike personally called more than 500 employees when they tested positive for Covid-19. Who else can say they got a call from the president of their company to check on them?”

Metro values its people and that mindset has led to a multi-generational workforce that includes parents and children, husbands and wives, all coming to Metro for employment.  Loyalty is rewarded and at Metro, a five-year employee is sometimes still considered a “newbie.” Many of the Shreveport employees have two decades or more under their belt and an abundance of stories of how they worked their way up from counting parts to where they are now. 

Aviation Industry Pioneers.

Across every one of Metro’s services, each and every day, they pair creative problem-solving with the latest research to turn exciting ideas into breakthrough technologies and innovations that can transform and inspire their industry.

In 2007, Metro acquired the former Solo Cup manufacturing facility and relocated there from the Shreveport Downtown Airport, transforming the site into a comprehensive completions and operations facility with paint, avionics, machining, production, and installation areas. The facility has since undergone numerous expansions and is now home to a state-of-the-art training and operational control center. Today, the 180,000-sf headquarters in Shreveport is an FAA Certified Airframe Modification, Maintenance, Inspection, and Repair Facility fully capable of a complete range of modification and upgrade packages.

Completion customers include hospitals, universities, law enforcement agencies, utility services and fortune 500 companies; not to mention a few VIP customers here and there. “These customers are not just buying the aircraft,” admits Stanberry. “Quite often, Metro Aviation not only provides the aircraft, but adds personalized installments, as well as trains the ground and flight personnel. We are a one-stop-shop when it comes to rotor or fixed-wing aircraft.

“We work on the cutting edge,” says Geltz, “redefining our industry with innovative ideas, research, and advanced transformative technologies in order to create a safer, more efficient aircraft for our customers and the industry.”  

With such innovative, state-of-the-art facilities, Metro Aviation is in the unique position of being both a completions center and an operator. As such, they understand the needs of their customers, who are often operating in remote locations, at night, and under adverse conditions. Metro’s reputation for attention to even the smallest details and complete customer satisfaction is what sets them apart in the industry.

“Our team does it all,” says Morrow. “We participate in everything from customer listening and engagement, all the way through to design, development, and delivery of the final product. The work we do to help shape the future of aviation may be complex, but the values that unite us as a company are not. Simply put, our values reflect who we are and what we commit to—as individuals and as part of a larger, Metro Aviation culture.”

Looking to the Future by Building on their Past

Even after 40 years, Metro is constantly growing their capabilities and expanding their reach. Today, Metro holds more than 30 Supplemental Type Certificates (which is like having a U.S. Patent) and completes about 35 aircraft each year for both U.S. customers and global clients. “This accomplishment says a lot about who we are,” says Vice President Todd Stanberry. “Especially considering that we started with three employees in 1982 and have nearly 1,100 employees today. And, as the world faces the realities of ever-increasing costs, and the aviation industry looks for a sustainable path forward, Metro Aviation is in a unique position to make a positive impact on the future by bringing an elevated perspective to help lead the way. Our resources, knowledge and experience give them a greater grasp of the challenges ahead.”

Metro Aviation is aware that perspective changes everything, and a shift in viewpoint can broaden horizons, shape new possibilities, and bring clarity to the bigger picture. “Metro is innovative for—and with—their customers to drive more sustainable solutions that solve unique aviation challenges and pave a better path for the industry,” says Morrow. 

Both Stanberry and Geltz agree. 

“Across the industry, Metro is advancing new and expanded efforts in sustainability, and many industry leaders, including their competitors, look to Metro for technologies and solutions to help meet lofty aviation goals,” admits Stanberry. “Especially when it comes to sustainability. From artificial intelligence to hydrogen-powered aircraft, Metro Aviation hopes to seize new opportunities and rise to the responsibility.”

BY ADAM BAILEY

BY TEDDY ALLEN 

Most every morning, we get up hoping for something. We hope to make enough money to pay the rent. Or we hope to do something fun. We hope our team wins. We hope he or she will notice us.

We hope to make a difference, or we hope to just “make it through another day.” We run on hope, whether we think about it or not. When we quit hoping, we quit living. “If you don’t have hope, you don’t have Christmas,” the preacher told us. “If you don’t have hope, you don’t have life.” If that’s true, hope better be standard equipment. But it’s not. Hope comes as an option only. Good, then, that the Christmas season is about hope. No hope? No Christmas. The lights. The tree. The Nativity scene. Symbols of hope. Pictures of hope. Even the presents are mysteries wrapped, hope in a package, hope on a small and non-eternal scale. “I hope grandma didn’t get me socks!? Again!” We’re told that the greatest of all things is love. Not faith or hope, each of which hit the tape at about the same time as the other.

When you die, what you’ve had faith in will either be there – or it won’t. What you’ve hoped for will be realized – or it won’t. At that point, you’ll have use for neither. At that point, love has the stage to itself. But in a world filled with “Why’s,” way down here, hope comes in handy. Sort of like air comes in handy. We start out hoping for little things. A bike and a ball glove and my two front teeth. But you get older, and it’s a different ballgame. You hope for a better job. A better home. A home at all. Someone to love. Someone to even care. There are days when all you want is hope. Or even a hint of it. I had a friend in that boat. His report from the doctor wasn’t good that day a couple of years ago. But faithfully, the patient, my friend, did as he was told.

BY ADAM BAILEY

But there’s a way to prevent that from happening in 2023—start by setting small, achievable goals. Try these New Year’s resolution ideas to stay on track and fulfill your personal enhancement goals.

DO SOMETHING ON YOUR BUCKET LIST.

New Year’s resolutions often crash and burn because they try to tackle too much too fast. But you can take things as slowly as you want. The key to setting good New Year’s resolutions is simply moving forward at your own pace.

There’s no reason to wait until you’re nearly dead to start living the way you’ve always wanted. And your bucket list is more than just a to-do list; it’s a way-to-live list. So, why not start crossing things off as regularly as possible.

CHANGE UP YOUR LOOK.

Losing weight and exercising are among the top 10 most common New Year’s resolutions. But fitness resolutions tend to be short-lived because most people expect results fast. On the plus side, there are easier ways to transform your look and see instant results. Take a few inches off your hair, try a new hair color, get a tattoo, or simply switch up your personal style. Make 2023 the year you decide to embrace bold colors, mix patterns, and find the courage to wear outfits you’ve always wanted to but never thought you could pull off.

SAVE A SMALL PERCENTAGE OF YOUR PAYCHECK.

When you’re living paycheck to paycheck, you might feel tempted to splurge the moment your bank account is replenished. But impulsive purchases can add up, no matter how affordable they seem in the moment, and that’s why a New Year’s resolution of opening up a savings account can offer you peace of mind. At least 20% of your annual
income should go to savings, but if you save less in one month than you’re supposed to, don’t beat yourself up about it. If you haven’t saved before, you can start by saving as little as $100 and working your way up.