Dear Innovator,
I remember those days when I would forget which day of the week it was. My life revolved around my monthly flight schedule, always looking forward to great layovers and days off. In flying there are no Mondays, weekdays, weekends, or holidays. You’ll find yourself celebrating noche buena onboard with sleeping passengers, or spending Halloween in a spooky hotel alone in your room in Ireland. You can feel lonely despite being surrounded by people half drunk on New Year’s eve, because you hardly know anyone. And because of the pandemic, I’m sure a lot of you can relate to missing someone while having a virtual conversation with them via zoom. But there’s something that makes it all worthwhile — it’s the love of what you do.
Whatever you’re doing now, whether flying, waiting for an opportunity to apply or waiting for the airline to call you back, or you’re in search of any form of income stream, you need to accept that with any kind of dream job, there will come a time when you will forget how it feels to be head over heels with the work that you do. Just like falling in love, you can’t be on cloud nine forever.
Check out my Jurassic graduation photo. I’m the one standing from the left. My tan was unparalleled with all the different criss cross sun burns from different bathing suits that we wore for a week. For someone like me who barely knew how to swim, the challenge of learning how to tread for an hour, how to perfect different types of strokes (e.g. crawl, free style, standard side, inverted side) in order to be equipped to save lives, and how to survive by making floatation device using our clothes, were my most unforgettable moments in training. I remember praying while doing the required number of laps before our final test called ‘grabbing’. It was when three instructors would surround you while treading. They would pounce on you from underneath, and the challenge was for you to get away from their grip by applying the principles of survival swimming. The Red Cross trainers meant serious business when it came to bringing out the mermaids and mermen superpowers in us. From Monday to Saturday, everyday felt like day one. We never knew what would happen next. But it was also a good thing that we didn’t, otherwise, I would have quit even before it started. Not really! I was in love. I was determined to become a flight attendant.
“It is always Day One!”
~ Jeff Bezos, Amazon Founder & CEO
Flying is all about day one. You don’t know what’s going to happen next. It can be good, bad or ugly. It can be bitter, sweet or bland. It can be boring or full of excitement. Every flight, just like that swimming bootcamp is day one. You have to give your all. Because there’s only one chance to make a difference. Each flight is unique. You fly with different sets of crew, different passengers with different needs and wants, from all over the world. I guess it’s basically the same thing with life. We need to live and give the best of ourselves in each passing moment. Iterating the beautiful words of Etienne de Grellet below, for we shall never fly this way again.
“I shall pass through this life but once. Any good therefore that I can do, let me do it now. Let me not defer or deflect it. For I shall never pass this way again.”
~ Etienne de Grellet
I would like to end this by inviting you on our next DayOne. Yes DayOne! It’s for you to become an Innovator. Flyhigh Manila and Ni2 aims to empower past, present and future flight attendants by honing your Innovator Spirit and propelling you to fly even higher.
Click this link to find out more: DayOne I hope to see you then.
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