I suddenly woke up right now - just after 3 in the morning - full of thoughts on flight attendants. It was as if I had become Sarah in my dream, walking the aisles of the 777 and checking up on the 300+ passengers on board. Okay, I did not become Sarah in my dream, but it still felt like it as I woke up.
Sarah shares with me one trait: a love of flying and airplanes. She inherits this from Grandpa Warren, who flew for the USAF during the Korean War, and takes her on many trips to airports and air museums when she was little Sanford. I end up having a field day at those places too, but I know that neither my temperament nor my philosophy is well suited to the life of a flight attendant. As much as I love traveling, I just can't see myself going through 8 grueling weeks of training, then having to deal with increasingly irate passengers, only for $15,000 per year. I know I won't even make it past the training.
Something else must guide and motivate Sarah and other flight attendants. It seems that one must really love the lifestyle - where adventure awaits every corner, and where the travel experiences add up to more than the low paycheck. Drawing satisfaction from the safety and well-being of one's passengers is very important too, I presume. And the camaderie of the coworkers... that would be something to take into consideration too, since I am not a very social person.
When the time is right, I will start corresponding with my classmate who used to be a United flight attendant, just like Sarah. I want to be sure that I am in the right state of mind before I start throwing questions at her!
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