Nicole Malachowski Quotes

For four years, it had been multiplying, getting worse, getting further into the central nervous system. From the time of that first rash to the time of my accurate diagnosis and beginning treatment, 1,525 days had passed, more than 24 doctors across eight specialties were seen, and three misdiagnoses were made along the way.”

During that two-year period, I was unable to interact with my children who were between the ages of five and seven, and I lost my career. The Air Force medically retired me.

I used to think my destiny/legacy lay in having been an officer and fighter pilot,

You have been a high-performing woman in a male-dominated career field for many years. Maybe this is your body’s way of saying it’s time to retire.”

“It’s ok to reminisce about the past, but not ruminate about it.

The runway behind you is always unusable; all we ever have is the runway in front of us.

The severe illness taught me that being a fighter pilot gave me the skills and traits I needed to survive my illness and turn to my new mission of advocating for others.”

You build trust by being trustworthy,” “Avoid the idea of, ‘That guy needs to prove I can trust him.’ Trust never comes to you; trust emanates outward to a team from your behaviors.”

The Thunderbirds taught me nothing of significance is ever accomplished alone,” she says, recounting the time she tried and failed, multiple times, to master an extremely difficult air show maneuver requiring the jets to move from diamond formation into trail formation, putting the wing tips within inches of one another. Ultimately, getting it right required her to take a deep breath and admit to her teammates: “I need help.”

Well, we don’t have Lyme disease in North Carolina, so it must be a spider bite.” Nicole surmised, “That was the day my life changed forever. That was the day I became chronically ill.”

Everything that she needed to be a good fighter pilot, such as discipline, focus, commitment, determination, and confidence are the traits and the characteristics she needed to survive the worst depths of her illness and to thrive today, even though she still lives with chronic symptoms.

That phrase means everything”, “It is the gentleman’s handshake. It means: We have an expectation of the professional execution of this mission. I promise you I will hold myself accountable to that standard, and you will hold me to that standard. That wingman contract is the culture. It’s the principles and values that drive you.”

It was the unconscious bias," she said. "What was coming out were the cultural paradigms of the U.S. Air Force at that time, and the expectations about what I should or should not be doing. I removed that application and said, 'You're right, I'm so sorry for bothering you.'"

"You know, whether we like it or not sometimes when you’re a first, you end up speaking on behalf of the group and that can be hard and that can be complex and gnarly but somebody has to go first,""And you definitely want to do it in a way that creates more opportunity for the people that follow.

What happened is, we did it over and over until I got it right. It was the right thing to do by our customer and client [the audience on the ground]. My teammates helped me from a place of kindness and commitment,” she says. “It’s never beneath any of us to offer help, too.”