Kara
What do you do?
I am a flight attendant for a US based, domestic airline.
How did you get there?
After graduating from University, I moved back in with my parents, while looking for a full-time job in marketing and advertising, and teaching Pilates on the side. I had always excelled in school and whatever I chose to do, but the move from student to career person was a tough and challenging transition that left me depressed, confused, and lost. During this time, I ended up having an opportunity to travel to Egypt with a friend that worked in the Airline industry. On this trip, he advised me to apply for a job as a flight attendant. Even though I had grown up in a family with an aviation background; dad’s a corporate pilot, brother flies for a cargo company, and I had soloed a private plane when I was 16, I had always thought that I would HATE being a flight attendant. I wanted to do something different, make my own way.
Well, I took my friend’s advice, and applied to all of the airlines that I found to be hiring at the time. I really had no idea what I was getting into, and although I was nervous for my interview, I felt like I had nothing to lose, so I displayed the bubble and outgoingness that is a signature of my personality. And I got the job! I was lucky enough to be based in Southern California, close enough to family, but far enough to be independent. I’ve had the privilege of developing deep friendships with my colleagues, have a schedule that allows me to see many new places and meet incredible people all over the world, and been able to share that through a website that I started, chronicling the tales of a life as a flight attendant.
Why do you like it?
There are so many reasons that I love my job. I love working as a flight attendant because the schedule is always different. I have time to pursue interests outside of work, one being that I am IN LOVE with travel. I like that I am not at a desk, and that I get to meet new people every day. I even like the customer service part of flying, and the job has developed more patience, assertiveness, and communication skills within myself. I have matured as a person, and although I feel that working as a flight attendant is not my life long dream career, as I hope to pursue more in the area of volunteer work writing, and learning languages, I believe that somehow, the universe landed me right where I needed to be, now, and that’s when I didn’t even know that I would like to fly! Because, becoming a flight attendant has been the answer to my lostness, sometimes I promote it as the answer to everyone’s life direction solution, but it’s not for all. It was, and is, my answer to opening a life that is better than I once ever dreamed, and if anyone asks me, I still bubble in delight that I love my job and gush that “I just spent twenty days in Vietnam and Thailand.”
This job has made me dream on an entirely different scope, and I’ve been forever changed. Traveling to Haiti, Costa Rica, Istanbul, Slovenia, Portugal, Guatemala, Czech Republic, and the list could go on for paragraphs and paragraphs, in the time span of less than four years, will do that to you.
Follow Kara’s adventures on her blog The Flight Attendant Life
