I heard back from the airline I applied with and I am currently in training. If you add up all the context clues you could probably determine who I work for now, but I won’t be naming the airline in this post or discussing anything too specific about training to avoid mentioning anything that is privileged information. That being said I can tell you I am truly happy to have gotten this opportunity. My former airline is winding down operations at a slightly faster pace than originally planed and the parent company I could have transferred to has just in the last two days been dealt another large blow to it’s business model on a whole. Honestly my last month at my previous airline was a little depressing, we had some really great crews, it was the end of an era.
Despite the large amount of homework and studying I have had time to reflect on the changes that lie in the future.This operation is far more organized and stable than my last airline. It makes me wonder if I will be happy here and decide to make it a long time career. In doing so I will limit myself financially. Enjoying what I do for a living is a high priority but flight attendants don’t have very high salaries and this industry is very cyclical. There are ups and downs. Certainly I won’t be starving or financially lacking in a huge way but enough that it could determine what options I pursue in the future. Will I ever be able to go back to school? Will I ever be able to financially support someone else? Will I ever be able to buy a home and when will I be able to buy a car? The car and home aren’t huge priorities, as currently with my income being what it is it makes more sense to rent and I don’t need a car in the city. Lots of opportunities I do have are time sensitive and if I don’t pursue them soon I won’t be able too. No pun intended, but time really does fly when you’re crew. As for Mona, like seemingly every woman I know who is approaching the dreaded 30th year of their life, conversations about motherhood come up frequently. Kristen, my roommate,is no different and Alicia, another one of my roommates, is about 2 months along in her pregnancy. I’ve never really had a desire to be a father. I simply realized that having children might be a price I’d have to pay to keep a woman around. I don’t dislike children, but at the same time if I can not adequately provide for their needs. All these thoughts consume me but I am trying my best to live in the present and not worry so much about the future. I mean after all I haven’t even been with Mona a year, but I frequently worry that I am wasting her time. It’s easier said than done. I am a particularly good worry wart.
Fortunately I have gotten my bid preference and thus can keep my apartment with my awesome room mates and be able to more easily spend time with Mona. The fact that I don’t have to scramble to find a new or even a temporary place to live has reduced my anxiety levels considerably. I’m not overly fond of Jersey but for the time being it’s home and moving would have caused a large amount of complications. Newark turned out to be the least favorite choice and the the most junior people at the bottom of the list all got sent there.
Another bit of good news is that I will have the opportunity to add Mona to my travel benefits. I think it will improve our relationship and allow us to have more exciting weekends. Provided we can find a suitable cat sitter, for Pearl, an adorable horribly needy shelter cat I picked out and Mona adopted a few months ago. I have this great desire for my life to be this great adventure and I will get to test out Mona’s ability to be an adventurer as not being one is a deal breaker. My best friend Matt, will go in the newly offered second slot and pay slightly more to travel. He was very understanding about the switch up since I will be on reserve Mona being my “# 1” will allow her to more easily spend time with me. Overall this will make maintaining our relationship easier. I actually miss her a great deal , which is comforting because the last few relationships have left me feeling rather emotionally detached and the pangs of longing are in a sick way comforting. Thankfully I have not turned in to a heartless robot just yet.I wish I could fly her out here now. Amy, of all people, generously offered up a buddy pass to get her down here but those are pricey and I worry about Mona getting stranded.
In other happenings, I have been running a lot lately , which is great and makes me feel so much better but has had a strange side effect. There’s a really great running trail right next to the hotel we’re staying at. Running always vastly improves the quality of my sleep. The deeper sleep has led to vivid dreams. I have had three nightmares since I’ve been hear. Matt and I were attacked by a bear and just barely got inside a house where we barricaded ourselves in.Dream # 2: I had a child with a faceless woman, she ignored me for the child and the child took all my money. Dream # 3: After a lovely road trip with Mona we pulled over for a quick nap and I was assaulted in the parking lot, which of course turned out to be in Newark. What exactly these dreams say about me I don’t know, what I do know is they all make me bolt of bed with my heart beating like a drum. I realize that part of the lucidly frightening dreams is just my mind’s response to stress and fear of change. Hopefully it should subside after training.
Training though challenging is going well and the class is full of great people. So for the most part I can’t complain. My room mate Daniel is a real card, always making jokes and chasing tail. He also ran in college on a scholarship and is much faster than me, as I discovered when I could only keep pace with him for the first five minutes of a run. It’s good that we get along though as a bad room mate can make training unbearable. I’ve witnessed some real cat fights in my previous adventures in training but thus far have been lucky in regards to my room mates. The rest of the class is pretty young which makes me senior in my class and then there are some old pros with previous airline experience. It’s nice to have some Flight attendants around to trade “war stories” with. The material is mostly review for me. The only thing that has me nervous are the evacuation drill because my old airline’s procedures are so firmed planted in my mind. At this point I’m about half way done with training. If nothing tragic happens I’ll be on reserve in Newark in July and hopefully holding a line sometime around January, if the last class is any measure of reserve time.
I’m sure this is all rant and raving but forgive me I haven’t studied this much in ages.If only I had tried this hard in school. I’m not sleeping or eating enough on top of that with the time requirements for training. Anyways my brain is thoroughly broken and I will edit this for grammar or sanity at some point in the future.