SYLAS Rank grew up in remote village in Western Highlands to a family of 11 (six boys, three girls including his parents). Growing up as a child, life was easy for him because his father was a teacher and he taught in urban schools that helped Sylas and his siblings get access to a good education. But it wasn’t an easy road for them.
His dad moved a lot (from school to school) that sometimes the new surrounding and the people affected him one way or another. Sylas always wanted to be a doctor when he grew up but little did, he knew that life had other plans for him.
Years passed and he was selected to do his Grade 9 at Mt Hagen Park Day Secondary school in 2011. After completing his Grade 12 in 2014, with physics and chemistry as his major, he did not secure a space in a tertiary institution because of low grades. The reason being that he did not prioritise his time in high school.
He sometimes skipped classes, joined his friends to hang out unnecessarily for smoking and chewing of betelnut. He thought that he was doing well but unfortunately, he dropped out in 2014. In 2015, he stayed back home to upgrade his marks at DODL in Mt Hagen Secondary for a year and started applying to colleges and universities.
In early 2016, Sylas got disappointed again for not getting any offer from the schools he applied for. However, his uncle who lived in Kainantu heard about an opening of a new Aircraft Maintenance and Engineering school In Aiyurah, Eastern Highlands Province and called him to apply there. In 2016, he was offered a space at Aiyurah Aircraft Maintenance and Engineering School to study Aero Physics for three years. There his new chapter began; he had let go of his dreams to be a doctor and follow what life had offered him.
During his three years at Aiyurah, he faced a lot of challenges. One being accommodation problems. Since the school was new, there were no accommodation provided so looking for a place to sleep off campus was tough for him and his fellow course mates. Sometimes there was no place to sleep so he and his friends would sleep in classrooms and other times they would live with the neighbours and had to pay rents and provide their own food.
The school was located in a remote village in Kainantu where he had to walk for half a day to get to the nearest bus stop as there was no good roads built. For him to get his supplies in town, he spends half a day getting to town and comes back the next day. But that did not stop him from achieving his dreams, in fact a lot has changed for him. He started going to church, he quitted smoking and chewing of betelnut, helped out with community chores and learnt so much on self-discipline.
In 2018, October 05th, his big brother passed away and he left school to attend to his funerial back in his village. Unfortunately for Sylas he had to go through the worst year of his life. After his brother’s burial his father again passed away on the same year from shock. His father couldn’t handle the passing of his son so soon after he also passed away. This tore his world into pieces and he gave up on everything. So, with no hope and depression he stayed home for a year and almost gave up on himself too.
His mum on the other hand would sacrifice everything she had just to provide shelter and food on the table for him and his other siblings. She sews meri blouse and sold betelnut to feed her children. Sometimes she sews other people’s clothes and blouse to get small allowance to sustain them as life in a city was tough and they had to go from bad to worst after losing the bread winner in the family (their father).
While staying home, he learned the hard way and saw the real struggles his mum faced for them. That was when he realised he needed to do something to support his mother.
Sylas gathered his strength and applied for an Aircraft Maintenance Engineer job with several aircraft companies. He waited for two years with hundreds of failed job applications but he did not give up. Though times were tough and he had to go through financial crises, however, he managed each day as it came.
In early 2021, he was offered a trainee position with the Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF) as trainee. Though it was not much for him, he was humbled and content with what was offered to him and started working there for over a year now. With MAF, all trainees had to sit for end of the month exams to pass in order for them to be licensed. Despite having a medical condition and financial struggles at home, he failed almost three of his exams but managed to pass his final exam and looked forward for his future career.
“I am a fighter. I will never give up. No matter what life throws at me, I am always going to get back up on my feet and fight. Because now I have my mum and my smaller siblings looking up to me. I have come so far to where I want to be and I learned to accept everything that happened. My dream now is to further my studies to become both a licensed Aircraft Maintenance Engineer and a pilot one day,” he said.
