A Flying Start
I finally walked away from university a month before I was due to finish. My work was awful and I would have barely scraped a 2:2. Something happened in my head and I woke up one day and realised that if I stayed a moment longer, I would never get away from Justin. I knew that we would graduate and I wouldn’t find the strength to cut him out completely from my life.
I began to think hard about what I would do and where I would go if I had the choice. If you had asked me where I would like to be at that moment, I would have replied ‘The other side of the world’. And so based on this answer, I began to think about my options. I didn’t have a penny to my name, university had left me bankrupt, and I had a friend who had just joined Emirates as cabin crew. In my mind I began to toy with the idea of working there myself.
What started as a silly idea soon became a reality as I started to fill out application forms for various airlines. I looked at the Middle Eastern airlines as this gave me the option of living abroad, a completely fresh start. I also applied for Virgin Atlantic, British Airways and Silver Jet. I knew nothing about the job, the training or where I would be flying to. Before long I began to get loads of emails inviting me for interviews. I planned my outfits carefully, did my homework and started travelling to London and Gatwick for the various interview days.
I have to admit that at this point I didn’t really believe that I was actually doing this. I truly never thought that I would get the job, and even if I did, it all seemed to far off to consider taking it serious. I had a bad interview for Emirates and didn’t get offered the job, and on the back of this disappointment, I went for a job with what I thought was British Airlines. When I turned up for the interview I discovered that BA uses the same employment agency as Ethihad Airways and I was prepared for the wrong interview. Needless to say, this completely threw me and I totally messed up.
It wasn’t all bad; I went for the Virgin interview, and at the same time received confirmation that Silver Jet wanted me to work for them. I began to get very excited about my life. I had more energy than I had had in years, and had something to look forward to. I was considering joining Silver Jet, Japan Airlines offered me an interview (something incredibly difficult to get) and then I woke up one morning to an email from Virgin, offering me the job, asking me to start in a month. With out doubt, Virgin was the one I was after. The list of destinations was incredible and even as junior I would be flying to them in a matter of months. I had finally got the get out of jail free card I had needed. I can honestly say I screamed my house down. I woke up all my housemates and I think we sat in our pyjamas drinking wine and screaming!
And so fast forward a few months… I can’t gloss over the training. It was hard, harder than I had ever expected it to be. But it took my mind off everything and it felt good to be using my brain for something positive for the first time in ages. I made some amazing friends and had amazing amounts of fun doing practicals. There were scary tests daily, and end of week exams, but I passed them all and genuinely enjoyed myself.
I don’t think my new job hit me until I had actually been with Virgin two months. I had a trip to Boston and my crew had all decided that they wanted quiet time. I decided that I would go for a walk the night we arrived and found myself standing in the street of this beautiful city, deciding where I would go for dinner, 3000 miles away from home. And I think I have had a smile on my face since then. I can go where I like, I can see who I like. I go to the most beautiful places in the world, with the nicest, most laid back people. I have been to Antigua, Barbados, Cape Town, New York and San Francisco to name a few places in the last two months. I adore my job. No. In fact, I love my job. I love my friends and I love my family.
I heard from Justin recently. He contacted me through Face book. He asked to be my friend. He told me he missed me… I hit the delete button…
My life is in no way perfect… But it’s getting there.
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