a new kind of holiday
Working in the industry that I do, each day is a day of the week, to which day that is, is completely unknown to me 85% of the time. Our nights become our mornings. We wake up in the wee hours of the night, just as some are just winding down from a night out, to curl our hair, press our uniform, sipping coffee to slowly bring coherence about, all to get ready for our 4am flight time.
Today, as most people know it, it is New Years Day. It's a day of people hiking to start the year off in nature, day one of the beginning of a brand new resolutions endeavor, or for some a day of recovery and nursing an after party hangover. For me? I spent last night nursing a 2am wake up call and day one of a six day flight sequence. I spent it sipping a few glasses of wine after a three hour nap, an hour long run followed by nesting into my room for the night with Ryan Seacrest counting down the hours until the ball dropped.
You see, this isn't much different than my Christmas which I spent in a teeny tiny town that isn't known to many, my crew and I exhausted after a day of delays, holiday travelers and six legs of holiday cheer in a tube. This new career, this new journey as a flight attendant, isn't a be-known life choice. It's also not a life choice that you should choose if you want to be at your friends New Years party, Friendsgiving, Christmas dinner with the family, or even your own birthday party.
I've learned this and felt the impact of this career these last few months of holidays. It's challenging not being with those you know and love during exciting days and times, the holiday season. It doesn't hit you until it does. For me, I was fine on Thanksgiving, knowing that leftovers would be waiting for me in a Tupperware in my moms fridge. Christmas Eve and Christmas were collateral damage of being in the midst of reserve life. By New Years Eve, it struck again, this time surprising me that of the other holidays I had been gone so far,that this was the holiday that hit home for me.
The thing about holidays is that it's not about the day, it's not about the presents or the food, or even the champagne--it's about the excuse of gathering those closest in your life all together. Talking, catching up, enjoying games and activities together. That's what the holidays are about. As I sat, the fifth holiday in less than six months that I have been gone for, it hit me that I don't have people in my hotel room with me. I don't have my pup to snuggle with, my kitchen to cook comfort food in, my favorite blanket that is hung on my rocking chair, or the never ending bookshelves of books I've collected in years past. Being away, so many days and being in so many different places, I chose not to get those every day comforts, my daily interactions with 'my people', or even the daily run with my dog.
But instead, I get something pretty great. I get to help get other people to and from seeing family and loved ones. I get to see the bubbling excitement of those that are jittery with anticipation of who is waiting for them on the ground, or I get to hear the stories of the new memories that had just been made on their journey back home. Just the other day I got to meet a woman, who by some miracle had been on a flight of mine over a month ago when I had brought her to Seattle. And that day I got to take her and her husband back to Minneapolis. The whole flight I got to hear tid-bits of how visiting their three children and ten grandchildren was. This happy coincidence made my long day worth it, it made my whole day period.
It's moments like that, that I can't get enough of what I do...can't get enough of the holidays, even when I'm not where I thought I should be. Instead I get to be somewhere I never thought I would be. When you're reflecting on the past year and entering into a new and shiny one, isn't that what it's about? Being somewhere you couldn't have even imagined yourself being a year ago today? Life's kinda funny that way, eh?
What is it that has surprised you most in the last year that you never thought could be true today?
