The Flight Attendant (Part 1)

I had an old friend who’d recently moved to New York and started working as a gate agent for an airline. She invited me to New York for a visit, and gave me a free flight pass. On that flight I watched the flight attendants and started daydreaming about what their job would be like. I’d always thought flying for a living would be a fun occupation. Even as a little girl I’d loved flying, watching the tiny world below from 35,000 feet in the sky, feeling the thrill of going somewhere new and exciting.

One of the flight attendants, whose name was Ben, looked very familiar to me. I asked him at one point if we knew each other from somewhere, and he said he didn’t think so. He lived in L.A. so we thought we might have a mutual friend, but in the end couldn’t make a match. We did, however, spend the rest of the long flight chatting. I had a ton of questions about being a flight attendant and he was very helpful with information. The more I discovered about his job, the more I thought this was something I should pursue. I was definitely seeking a change for my life and this seemed right up my alley. I began to sense his agenda was a bit different from mine when he started making flirtatious comments. I didn’t think he was terrible looking, but he definitely wasn’t my type. He was on the shorter, scrawnier side, and even though I was considering becoming a flight attendant, I didn’t actually want to date one. By the end of the flight, I’d decided it would be in my best interest to keep in touch with Ben, in hopes he’d put in a good word for me with his superiors. I gave him my number and told him to give me a call.

Ben did call and, since I wasn’t living in L.A. anymore, we got to know each other via telephone. During this time period his airline called about the resume I’d submitted. They wanted to fly me out to New York for an interview. It appeared they wanted to test the applicants on their ability to function with little sleep and jet lag, since they had me scheduled to fly out on a overnight red eye, then heading straight from the flight to the all day interview. Someone suggested I take 2 Tylenol p.m. at the beginning of the flight. They said it would help me sleep so I’d have energy when I got in. The night of the flight I followed that advice and I’m not sure if it was because I’d taken it on an empty stomach, or if I had some sort of allergic reaction, but I ended up in the lavatory most of the flight vomiting and cursing the friend who suggested the medication. By the time we landed in New York I was exhausted and feeling like death. I was trying desperately to find the energy necessary to plaster on an all-day-long smile and show my flight attendant enthusiasm. I pulled myself together as best I could, drank about 7 cups of coffee and as many saltine crackers as I could stomach (about 2), then headed to the interview. I don’t remember many interview details but I must have done something right because, about a week later, I got the call congratulating me on my new occupation. They wanted me to start training in a month, and they would be placing me in the New York base. Umm…live in New York? That wasn’t part of my master plan…....To be continued