Wake up. Iron uniform. Pack suitcase. Check-in. Depart. Arrive. Check-out.
This sequence is my everyday. The contents in between these events can change but for the most part a day in the life of an FA is about as routine as it gets. Everything is layed out for us, from what type of service we are going to do, to the type of aircraft we fly. Everything is planned. What happens when one of these gets disrupted? I know that for the most part only aircrew reading this can relate but when we irop it messes with us more than you'd think.
Now take that on a much larger somewhat comical scale and relate it to personal life.
Born (check-in). School (iron). Job (pack/depart). Retire (arrive). Death (check-out).
Where is the random? Life is so full of routine. We have routine set for us from society and we have routine set for us by our family. As chaotic as some jobs may be, people can find routine in chaos. The more and more I type I realize that I seek the opposite! I seek chaos in routine. That little kick that can provide challenge, ignite passion and spawn a chain of events you can form to suit your needs. Did you catch the juxtaposition? 'Little kick." What exactly is the little kick? For some people it can be something as small as missing a meal in a day to throw you off. For others, it can be up and quitting a job at the snap of your fingers to find something you seek passion in (more often than not this is the story told by many FA's). The high you get from seeking chaos if often found at 40 000ft. Again, it'll vary for every crew but you can often find it in peoples stories. Listen carefully and its always there.
This kind of introduces what I would like to incorporate into my blog. I know it may seem like a copy and paste because it has been done before but collecting stories of passengers and finding how or what they seek in their travels. Routine or Random. There is a blog out there called thepaxin11d.blogspot.com. Essentially, the FA gives a 'questionnaire' to the passengers she encounters in the seat 11D. They fill it out and she posts it online. I was elated when I found this blog. I'm not doing this to copy by any means but I foresee passion in connecting with the passengers and why not extend this to the jump-seat. I intend to have to two sides. One from a passenger and one from a flight attendant. Stay tuned as I write my questionnaire and post my first stories!
