When Thirty Year’s of Growing Pain(s) stumbled upon my favorite post, The Flight Attendant, I decided I would repost it. Then I came up with a way to celebrate my favorite bloggers that would go beyond including their links in a blogroll. I hope it works out.
The Flight Attendant
Yesterday, in the back of the pickup, we met up with an Irish girl who was about 21 traveling on her own, a young British couple (who literally looked like they were 15 years old – the female half of the couple had been traveling five months on her own), and a mother/daughter duo from the United States.
Immediately, there was conversation about where have you been, where are you going, what have you been doing, etc., etc.? The mom who was approximately 52 to 53ish exclaimed with pride that she was a flight attendant. I was a little taken aback by her excited proclamation. She then went on to explain, much to all of our envy, that she and her daughter had flown first class to Thailand from New York for $78.00. “They greeted us with champagne and gave us menus,” she exclaimed with the giddiness of me when I see a Thai vehicle with seatbelts. I honestly thought, I’d like to marry this woman for her airline benefits.
Eventually, she told us her story. She used to own an oil changing franchise and a couple of other investment type businesses. One day her sister came into the oil changing establishment and found her crying. The sister said, “I have never seen you so miserable.” That day, she decided she would sell the businesses and do something different with her life.
She decided she would like to be a flight attendant and asked her sister to help her look for something online. A couple of weeks later she was on her way to New York City to interview for a flight attendant job. There were about 150 applicants there; she called her sister, and said, “What was I thinking? There is no way I am going to get this job!” Two hours later she was being drug tested and looking for an apartment in NYC.
Here’s the clincher, this all happened within the last year! She’s in her early fifties, a flight attendant, and traveling the world first class for 78 bucks a shot!
I thought about it for a second or two, and then asked, “Is there a maximum weight limit for flight attendants.”
The Irish girl egged me on, “You should do it!!!” “Yes, yes!” everyone in the back of the truck encouraged except Kip and Ralphie who were mortified that I was speaking out loud.
“Well,” I thought, “If I lose 50 pounds so I don’t have to walk down the aisle sideways and get the pesky broken toe fixed so I can wear heels, this could work.”
Then I remembered I am deaf in my left ear. The flight attendant reassured me, “Not a problem, nobody ever asked me if I was deaf.” I responded, “Well, I think they will figure out something is wrong when everyone on the left side of the plane ends up with the wrong order.” Even Kip cracked a smile for that.
Later, I told Tony, “I don’t think the flight attendant thing will work out for me; I am horrible in a crisis, plus I think the pilots would get tired of me tapping on the cockpit door asking if they see that big plane at the end of the runway that hasn’t cleared our path, and oh yeah, I have a latent fear of flying!”
Tony replied , “I could be a pilot.”
Do you have a favorite post, please visit my Y R U Even Saying This? page to share it with our blogging community! It’ll be fun. Just do it! Please. :-)
So far the links that have been posted are great! Thanks!
Love that she did this in her fifties. Maybe this isn’t the perfect job for you, but the spirit of reaching out into the possibilities, even if they seem difficult to obtain, is priceless. Go for it!
I hope you will pick out a favorite post for YRU Saying This?
you crack me up…i am writing an insanely long piece right now and I click over here and my life is reborn with WW perspective. I needed this. As I hate to fly and only recently learned the secret to coping while way up high is to repeat the mantra, “I’m content to die today,” I will not be harboring any flight attendant fantasies now or ever, ever. But you go girl! I would kill to have you as my “stewardess”.
That is my airplane mantra as well. One of the joys of flying is having absolutely no control over the plane (I find it kind of relaxing not being in control once or twice a year).
PS I hope when you are done with your long post, you will contribute a favorite or two to the YRU Saying This page.
I’m old enough to remember when all flight attendants were perky young women who all looked like they had just graduated from either diapers or some college sorority. Then guys appeared, “stewardess” morphed into “flight attendant,” and I was stunned. Just when I got over that, along came the “older” women, with real bodies and sensible shoes. Hurray for that 50+ year old woman!
I’ll cheer for that: Yay 50+ women!
This is such a great idea! So happy I was involved in that thinking process (meaning I’m glad you actually pulled something like that from my comment ;) )
Thanks for giving us the platform to digg up our overlooked favorites here :)
You are the best!
:) K.
Thanks. And thanks for sharing your links on Y R U Saying This? All three stories were great, but I reall loved Why the FBI Needs Me. One of my good friends in an FBI agent, I’ll send him your link. :-)
Really? That’s hysterical! :D
It is never too late to reinvent ourselves! Thank you for sharing this; fun, fun!
MJ
I have been in the process for several months now.
I’ve read several great posts on your blog – I hope you will contribute a favorite!
Thanks a lot, now I’m sitting here wondering if I could be a flight attendant. I’ve flown enough to know that being angry is not a disqualification.
First class for $78.00 round trip. You can do it!
I hope you will contribute one of your favorite posts to YRU Saying This?
No wonder this is your favorite post. What a great story – you tell it so well. I think I’m too old, but I sure would like to travel overseas for $78.
I deleted a comment here I had written earlier. It was supposed to say, I see first class tickets in your future! Since you were FP’d the next day, I’d say you are a little closer to fullfilling my prediction.
I love flying until I get on a plane. Then inevitably, every flight, I feel myself praying that we will make it to the other side. And as soon as we land, I’m happy as a clam. I’m kind of glad I forget about this inherent fear of plummeting to my peril in a huge, heavy metal can. Because I love to travel. And I once found round-trip tix to London for $150 each. That’s the story of our third honeymoon…which I called Hubs about after I bought our tix.
I’d love to find tix for $150.00! Was it 2003? We bought some cheap tickets to France when the war started in 2003 (don’t get me wrong, obviously, I’d rather pay full price than be involved in another war).
Congratulations on your news!!!!!!
This is so inspiring! I turn 50 this year and I’m hoping to make a career shift, so it’s great to see that it’s possible. In high school I considered becoming a stewardess (as they used to call them) and travel the world, but I was only 5’2″ and apparently too short to comfortably reach the overhead compartment.
Well, this woman was shorter than me, and I’m 5’3″!
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I’ve watched many flight attendants at work and am always amazed they haven’t thrown passengers out the hatch! I still think about “what I want ot be when I grow up”…….
Tony is a little put off that people don’t think he can be a pilot when he grows up. I hope you will pick some links from your blog to add to YRU Even Saying This?
You don’t need to worry about your hearing loss on your left side causing you to give everyone on that side of the plane the wrong food. They don’t serve food anymore so you can cross that worry off your list. Fun post :)
Thank you for pointing that out. Perhaps, there is hope after all!
I love this post, and also think it is rather cool that you wondered what I would think about something. Thank you. I’ll have a look at the ‘YRU Even Saying This’ blog soon too.
Thank you. I hope you will pick your favorites to add to it. It may be a hard choice for you – you have so much to share with the world.
This story is so inspiring (and funny)! Everyone should be doing what that brave woman did. I mean, I guess it must have taken her many years to get to that point of feeling so miserable that she made the change. But still … you know what I mean. Anyways, thanks for sharing such a wonderful story! :)
hahah you and Tony make such a great couple. God bless you both!
My favorite post is actually one of yours and I am going to post it up soon! Does that count or do I have to choose someone else’s? :)
Thanks! I was hoping bloggers would post their favorite posts from their own blogs. I have only read a few blogs from start to finish, and I feel like I have probably missed a lot of great posts. I think i would be cool to read the posts bloggers love that they wrote.
Your creativity is boundless, my friend!
Thanks Hook, I hope you will add your three favorites from You’ve Been Hooked to the YRU Saying This page.