The wild and windy night that the rain washed away
Oh me oh my. 1 hr. and 15 mins til I'm back on the radar at work. 1hr and 15 mins until I fear the phone ringing. 1hr. and 15 mins until my 12 hours of uncertainty. My suitcase is packed, my hair is washed and my shoes are polished but, I'm not ready.
I fell off the face of the Earth for just over a month. I've been sequestered in a hotel conference room with 20 other people from day break to night fall and now I feel like I've been shoved outside into the bright light and the door is locked behind me. Why didn't I bring my sunglasses?
Everything made sense right up until I woke up on Sunday morning still drunk on the living room couch while Callum played Pretenders records. That's when it all sort of hit me. I'm leaving the country and will only be back for 4 days a month and not in a row. Exciting yes? Yes. That part I can handle, that part is what I signed up for. It's all the other stuff.. it's the laws, regulations, protocol, standards and unexpected situations I'm afraid of. Right now it is all unknown to me. When you are with 20 other people who all the feel the same way it's not that bad. You don't feel alone... of course not, they all have the same fears and concerns as you do. It's when you are on your way to the airport for your first day of work and you have no idea where to check in, or what position you will be assigned and you've seen the crew list and not a single person from your training course is flying with you.
9 complete strangers with experience. 9 complete strangers who know the job inside and out. 9 complete strangers who expect you to know it as well. Yikes!
Yeah, I'm a flight attendant now and I'm writing this out because I have a feeling that in about 2-3 weeks I will laugh at how I'm feeling right now. My first official flight is on Saturday however, I am on Reserve from 12am to 12 noon every day this week. That means I can be called with 2 hours notice to fly to London tomorrow night. I can handle my first flight on Saturday (sort of) at least I am prepared and know when and where I'll be. I'm terrified of being called at 6am to operate a flight I've not had the chance to psyche myself up for. My only consolation is that a few of my friends are also on Reserve at the same time and there is a chance in that case that my first flight would be with one of them.
This is completely different than anything I've ever done before. I'm always nervous before I do a video, I am always a bit nervous for photoshoots (but not as much as a video) but somehow it has never been that unknown to me. Not even the first video I ever did, not even when I was working with Eminem in LA. There is something about this 'first' that is making me lose sleep and not eat.
Saturday will come, and I will go. I can handle any type of emergency that may arise be it a heartattack, panicking passenger, fire in the lav, fire anywhere really, anything - I'm completely trained and licensed in First Aid and use of a defibrillator. It's the service training that I'm nervous about.
Everyone thinks that flight attendants are just glorified waitresses. Well, I've just spent an entire month in intense training and not once did I learn how to serve coffee or say 'buh bye'. I spent an entire month actually fighting fires, pulling real people out of burning airplanes, evacuating passengers from a plane that has ditched into 68degree water, administering first aid, running through a smoke filled fuselage with a flashlight looking for unconscious, dead or panic striken passengers, pulling children out from under debris and jumping down the slide/raft and co-ordinating triage situations. You should see the bruises all over my body!
If my first flight crashed I'd be fine. But if someone wants tea with lemon... God help me! Why couldn't I have another month of just service training? I guess it's probably not that hard and I'm freaking out for nothing.
I can't wait to look back on this and laugh. Right? ha. ha.
Paris First Class International,
me.xoxo.
buh-bye.
I fell off the face of the Earth for just over a month. I've been sequestered in a hotel conference room with 20 other people from day break to night fall and now I feel like I've been shoved outside into the bright light and the door is locked behind me. Why didn't I bring my sunglasses?
Everything made sense right up until I woke up on Sunday morning still drunk on the living room couch while Callum played Pretenders records. That's when it all sort of hit me. I'm leaving the country and will only be back for 4 days a month and not in a row. Exciting yes? Yes. That part I can handle, that part is what I signed up for. It's all the other stuff.. it's the laws, regulations, protocol, standards and unexpected situations I'm afraid of. Right now it is all unknown to me. When you are with 20 other people who all the feel the same way it's not that bad. You don't feel alone... of course not, they all have the same fears and concerns as you do. It's when you are on your way to the airport for your first day of work and you have no idea where to check in, or what position you will be assigned and you've seen the crew list and not a single person from your training course is flying with you.
9 complete strangers with experience. 9 complete strangers who know the job inside and out. 9 complete strangers who expect you to know it as well. Yikes!
Yeah, I'm a flight attendant now and I'm writing this out because I have a feeling that in about 2-3 weeks I will laugh at how I'm feeling right now. My first official flight is on Saturday however, I am on Reserve from 12am to 12 noon every day this week. That means I can be called with 2 hours notice to fly to London tomorrow night. I can handle my first flight on Saturday (sort of) at least I am prepared and know when and where I'll be. I'm terrified of being called at 6am to operate a flight I've not had the chance to psyche myself up for. My only consolation is that a few of my friends are also on Reserve at the same time and there is a chance in that case that my first flight would be with one of them.
This is completely different than anything I've ever done before. I'm always nervous before I do a video, I am always a bit nervous for photoshoots (but not as much as a video) but somehow it has never been that unknown to me. Not even the first video I ever did, not even when I was working with Eminem in LA. There is something about this 'first' that is making me lose sleep and not eat.
Saturday will come, and I will go. I can handle any type of emergency that may arise be it a heartattack, panicking passenger, fire in the lav, fire anywhere really, anything - I'm completely trained and licensed in First Aid and use of a defibrillator. It's the service training that I'm nervous about.
Everyone thinks that flight attendants are just glorified waitresses. Well, I've just spent an entire month in intense training and not once did I learn how to serve coffee or say 'buh bye'. I spent an entire month actually fighting fires, pulling real people out of burning airplanes, evacuating passengers from a plane that has ditched into 68degree water, administering first aid, running through a smoke filled fuselage with a flashlight looking for unconscious, dead or panic striken passengers, pulling children out from under debris and jumping down the slide/raft and co-ordinating triage situations. You should see the bruises all over my body!
If my first flight crashed I'd be fine. But if someone wants tea with lemon... God help me! Why couldn't I have another month of just service training? I guess it's probably not that hard and I'm freaking out for nothing.
I can't wait to look back on this and laugh. Right? ha. ha.
Paris First Class International,
me.xoxo.
buh-bye.