Life is better in the skies

I haven’t been a flight attendant long but … I love being a flight attendant!

I love connecting with passengers as they travel for a variety of reasons: weddings; bachelorette and bachelor parties; anniversaries; funerals; to see a dying loved one; to see a loved one who is injured or unwell. I love I get to be involved in their excitement for an upcoming adventure, holiday or reunion. I love I get to hold their babies, chat with their toddlers, laugh with their teenagers.

I love that my training — the hardest I have ever done in my life in preparation for a career — is to keep my passengers as safe as possible, to give them the best chance of survival in the event that anything goes sideways. I’ve learned first-aid skills, service skills, skills to use in the event of a decompression. The biggest skills I’ve learned, though, are the skills to evacuate an aircraft as quickly as possible, saving as many lives as possible. I’m proud of those skills and while I hope I never, ever have to use them, I’m proud to have them as they would give everyone onboard a chance to live.

I realize that despite all of these skills and all of this training, there may be situations beyond my control. (I became a widow at 56 when My Favourite Husband unexpectedly died, so I’m familiar with situations beyond my control.) And although so many additional security measures have been introduced both in pre-board screening and onboard airplanes in the years since 9/11, things can still happen.

I’m aware, more than I’ve ever been, that in addition to mechanical issues that could potentially affect the safety of an aircraft, there’s the human factor to consider as well. That anyone would want to bring harm to my crew or passengers seems inconceivable but the reality is that it’s not. The fact that someone could turn my “office space” into a weapon of destruction is something I’m aware of every time that I step onboard. It’s why I remain vigilant in my situational awareness. I look for behaviours that are suspicious, actions that are out of line, conversations that are not “normal.”  Our crews follow the “one-crew concept” and we communicate with each other to ensure we are all on the same page when things are good and when things seem off.

As I mark my first 9/11 remembrance as a Flight Attendant, more than ever, I realize that the job I love, serving the people I love, has potential dangers that I don’t love. 

But as I get ready to fly tomorrow and all the days after, I’m not scared of the risks because the rewards are so much greater.

Life is better in the skies.

❤️