“Oh, I use to want to do that”, is a common statement I hear when people find out that I jet set for a living. Literally traveling back in time, traveling through various time zones in one day are flight attendants and pilot’s job description. However, I am here to talk about the life of flight attendants. If you ever traveled by air before, you might catch a crew scrolling through the airport with their bags rolling behind them. Never running, unless they are not on the clock, because passengers cannot leave without the flight crew.
You may think to yourself, hey it seems pretty cool to get paid to travel the world, and of course travel for leisure at a small cost. However, what many people do not know is the life after that last flight of the day. Yes, while working the crew get to sleep in nice hotels and most times in a different city every night, but behind those closed doors is a big lonely room. After a while, the thought of getting a room to escape reality is the very last thing that many of us want to do. After a while, your body does not even recognize your own bed, which makes sleeping that much harder. And, after a while you begin to ask yourself if traveling is worth the sacrifice of not being around your family? Is traveling worth missing those precious moments that you can only witness on a video chat? Or play it back on Instagram and Facebook.
For some, it is or it was their dream job to become a flight attendant. I am not making this stuff up. I have read numerous of posts from flight attendant groups on Facebook from future prospects and admires asking what steps do they take to get this “dream job.” While you’re young and “free” deciding between traveling the world and losing valuable time with love ones can be a no brainer; it was for me. As a recent graduate, no kids and no ties to anyone. I took a pay cut and a leap of faith to travel the world at an extremely low cost. Literally, flew to Milan, Italy round trip for $49.66 to be exact.
As with anything in life, there are pros and cons. However, the trick to living a happy life is to always do what makes you happy first, second do what is best for you with no regrets. Yes, I got a lot of backlash from taking a pay cut from dealing at a casino, but it was not about the money for me. I wanted to try something different. And something different is what I got. A flight attendant’s job is like no other. Hopping from plane to plane, crossing over countless seas and walking through lots of airports may seem like a walk in the park, but it is not! Not only are we there to board a plane and serve drinks, we also go through extensive training for literally ever emergency that one can think of. We can serve you a drink one second and at the next second have to save someone’s life.
So do not take our jobs lightly. Do not think we are brainless “air host” and do not work. Do not believe that our jobs are as easy as one, two, three; because believe me when you are 30-thousand feet in that sky and something goes wrong, we are the very first person one call on for rescue; no matter how small it is. We are greeters, we are host, we are servers, we are therapist and we are life savers so do not ever forget that.
