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A Flight Risk?

Drastically changing careers for a drastically new view?

By Erin LeahyPublished 6 years ago 3 min read
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To travel or not to travel?

If the answer to this question for you, is "yes, duh", please let me explain. A little background first. I'm a late-twenties woman who is still trying to figure life out (I know, no one is supposed to have all the answers). I went to college, graduated in 2013 with my Bachelor's in Law/Justice and held my fair share of crappy jobs like serving, cashier, retail, you name it after graduating. However, I still live at home, never had a full-salaried-401k-2-weeks-paid-vacation job. You're probably thinking that I'm a whiny, ungrateful, self-absorbed person for even thinking that I should have all of those things I mentioned. You want to know the truth? I haven't exactly earned all of those things just yet because I haven't been somewhere long enough to be able to earn all of those things. There's no shoe that's been the right fit, no porridge that has been exactly right, there's been no easy way into the field I chose to study all those years ago. And that's what is so incredibly daunting and humiliating for me. I paid how much to get this degree and still haven't been successful in finding a career? Why is it that I can't seem to feel happy about the choices I've made so far? All I've done is get stuck in this black hole that I can't seem to get out of.

So back to that travel question. Recently, I found an article that said an airline was hiring flight attendants. After doing research, I found out that flight attendants are in that line of not-so-glamourous occupations: long hours, low pay to start out (you work your way to your pay), dealing with flyers who are difficult, on-call status, working weekends and holidays... actually, that pretty much sounds like being a server, which I've done previously. Of course, there are the perks: you fly to destinations you wouldn't ordinarily, free travel, explore the world. Some bloggers like Flight Attendant Life say that the the pros outweigh the cons.

You're probably thinking, "this sounds like a really drastic change". Well, you're definitely right about that. Honestly though, I've always been one who doesn't mind being away from home. I went to Europe for two weeks in high school, I went away to college my freshmen year, I go on more exotic trips than most members of my family. I'm not afraid of being by myself most of the time. This also might surprise you but my boyfriend and I of about eight years only see each other once a week. We don't live together but have talked about moving in together recently. We just haven't because--the whole point of this post honestly--we aren't financially ready to do it. Neither one of us has found a career, only jobs. And this isn't about feeling insecure in my relationship either; he and I have gone through a tremendous amount of challenges that I know he'd be supportive if I decided to do something like this. Anyway...

Travel has always been something I've wanted to do and not something I just want to do if I retire (because let's face it, no one my age is going to retire until they're like 75). My boyfriend brought up an article from Forbes or something like that which said that most "millennials" (I HATE that moniker) prefer to travel now than later in life (retirement) because why not? Why wait? Why put off doing things when you can just do them and experience them while you're younger and capable? All good questions. He and I have always talked about seeing England, Europe, and other places. This idea could be a good way to doing that. In fact, we do have a vacation next year to the Caribbean that cannot get here fast enough. So, can this really be a reality for me? Or is it something to escape from the reality that I am facing today? Am I a flight risk for leaving everything here and searching for happiness elsewhere?

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