From 2010 to 2014, I attended Central Michigan University. Going in, I had already planned out my future. I was going to major in Biology, minor in Spanish, follow the pre-med track to be accepted into medical school, and upon finishing med school, I would become a pediatrician. After a year, I changed my mind and switched my major to Communication Disorders (CDO) with a minor in sign language. The new plan was to get my Bachelor’s in CDO, get accepted to and finish a Master’s in Speech Pathology, and become a Speech Pathologist in a hospital. At the end of my junior year, I decided that I wanted to take a year off in between graduation and graduate school, just to have a break from 16 years of school, save some money, work, and get some real-world experience.
Fast forward to fall/winter of 2014. I was working as a patient sitter at the U of M hospital, and hating every minute of it. It was mostly incredibly boring, and when it wasn’t boring, it was incredibly stressful. I submitted applications to the 3 grad schools near home, took a trip to visit 2 friends across the country (Arizona & Texas), and got hired to work at a clinic related to my future career field. I also decided to apply to work in the DTW airport for several airlines – as a ramp agent and as customer service agent, in hopes of getting hired and earning travel benefits working part time while I worked in the clinic. In January 2015, I finally had an interview with the company I currently work for – for the position of ramp agent. My interviewer decided I would be better suited for customer service agent. However, this required leaving in a few days for a two week, out-of-state training, and the career-related clinic job wasn’t willing to give me time off to do so. First tough decision – stay with the job that would give me real-world experience related to my career, or go with the new job, unrelated to anything I had planned, but would give me the chance to travel more? I think you know the answer.
So I worked in the airport. The job itself was okay – sometimes it was really stressful, sometimes it was boring, and sometimes it was fun. I was still planning on going back to school in the fall, though. I attended an open house at University of Toledo to be in the running for a scholarship. We got a tour of the clinic, met some of the current grad students and scholarship recipients, did interviews for the scholarship. But the passion I had felt for my career choice just a year ago was gone. I just felt out of place. I set those feelings aside and waited (impatiently) for an acceptance letter to any of the universities I had applied to. Eventually, Eastern Michigan University accepted my application, and from May to August, I fully planned on attending. My classes were scheduled, I went to a meeting with my adviser, and I even got my student ID. Meanwhile, my job at the airport was getting more interesting. I had gone on a few trips using my benefits, and loved every minute. On top of this, I was trained to work at the gate and send out flights. Doing this gave me the opportunity to talk to the flight attendants who were working said flights. I asked them every question I could think of – what they loved, what they hated, what their schedules looked like. What was a work day like, and what about accommodations on layovers? And just like that, I became interested in becoming a flight attendant.
In late July 2015, I decided to talk it over with my mom and get her advice – she had been the one to push me to take the first leap into the travel industry… She was very encouraging. “Do what will make you happy,” was the main takeaway from her speech to me. Mom didn’t want me to get stuck doing something just because it was what was expected of me, and what I had planned for myself. She wanted me to have adventures, to love my job, and not to worry if anybody else approved of my decision. She wanted me to do what would make me happy in the long run, and she knew that becoming a flight attendant was the key to this. So I decided to leap out of my comfort zone and withdraw from my grad classes. Even though I hadn’t gotten any interviews with airlines yet, it was now or never, and I chose now.
In the end, I applied for about 4 airlines, including the airline I already worked for. In October, after 8 hours of group and individual interviews, pageant questions, a group activity, a drug test, tons of paperwork, and a healthy dose of anxiety, I finally was hired in as a flight attendant with the company I had been working for! The best part of this was that one of my friends from work had also applied, interviewed, been hired, and we would be going to training together. On November 19, 2015, I began the month long training class to become an FAA certified flight attendant. These 4 weeks were the most nerve-wracking, anxiety-ridden, intense studying weeks I had seen since finishing college. After all, I wasn’t actually guaranteed the job until I passed training. After performing CPR, naming and explaining every piece of emergency equipment and how to use it, operating an oxygen bottle, and (fake) evacuating an aircraft on land and water, I passed with flying colors! I was given my wings and a hug, and sent back to Detroit to begin my career, and the rest is history.
There are days that I can’t stand my job. Days that I sleep through 7 alarms because I only got 5 hours of sleep, and drag my feet coming into work. There are days I don’t have the patience to answer the same 500 questions I get asked on a daily basis, and days that I crave a normal 9 to 5 schedule, where I have every weekend off. Days all I want is a home-cooked meal but I’m stuck eating airport or hotel food. But those days are only that – days. Few and far between. The trips that I come into work just to unexpectedly find I am working with some of my favorite coworkers, who I don’t have to worry will have my back in tough situations, are more common than not. Running into people from all over the country who I have flown with before but haven’t seen in months are more common than not.
Beautiful views from the airplane windows at sunrise and sunset, and sometimes seeing the stars and constellations so clearly from the cockpit windows are more common than not. The thousands of passengers we get to bring home, or take on vacation, or to see loved ones, who are so kind/funny/incredibly grateful outnumber every bad day 30:1. The benefits (OH, THE BENEFITS), that get me across the world more times in 1 year than I’d likely get in 10 years in any other career path, make up for the bad days. And my abnormal schedule? Not always a bummer. Everyone complains about Mondays, but how can it feel like Monday when you don’t know what day it is, or you only work for 3 to 4 days at a time, or you get a 4 day weekend? Not to mention how you miss rush hour every time you go in to or come home from work – my 5 am showtime means I’m out on the highway before most people. And I love that I can go grocery shopping at midnight after I get home from a trip and miss out on the lines, or go Christmas shopping at noon on a Wednesday and miss the crowds. Or take off 7 days in a row and not miss out on any hours. I absolutely love my job, and now that I’ve had some practice jumping out of my comfort zone, I’ve found out that I really enjoy it out there, and I try to do it more often.
Making this decision was the best decision of my life. If later on I decide to pursue something else as a career, I will still have all of my experiences, my travel memories, my stories, and my love of this part of my life.
We Wanderers 