to the year of half full
We've all heard the saying, 'are you lookin' at that glass half empty or half full?'. I don't know about you, but I grew up hearing this from every adult who thought my pouty lip over not getting the piece of candy I wanted wasn't quite acceptable.
Having grown up around that, it's something that I find to always be in the back of my brain, behind the unorganized files of years and memories, it's there reciting itself as if it were tattooed somewhere on my brain. I find it pulls me back to reality, back to where I need to be. As a twenty two year old with a lot of living ahead of me, this is a great thing, a great grounding technique too.
But as you get older a secret that is so open and people tell you all the time is that, life is hard and only gets harder as you get older. As a youngin I always found myself saying, pish-posh applesauce, they don't know, they must just be making their life harder....let me tell you that I was so naive.
Instead of choosing between peanut butter and jelly or crackers and cheese for lunch, I'm debating whether or not to have top ramen for ninety-nine cents or use my almost maxed out credit card to get Phad Thai. Instead of playing with kids in the street after school I'm working sparatic hours to try and make just enough money for rent and my overdue bills this month. I've traded in my Capri Sun for the biggest glass of wine the hotel bar will allow me for nine dollars.
Throughout the day I'm asked the same questions over and over.
How much longer do we have left? We just took off twenty minutes ago...so three hours.
Is there a bathroom back here? Well, while you were listening to music and unwrapping your Chipotle burrito, we were giving an instructional demo of the features of this aircraft.
Where do I put this? Shoving trash, a baby's dirty diaper or, my personal favorite, good ole vomit in a bag into my ungloved hand.
And then there are the classic perks of working in an airport.
Delay. 10 minutes---okay, not too bad. Well, it's taking a bit longer than expected now just a simple 2 hour delay. Okay, not good.
Aircraft swap. Alrighty. You're current plane is in spot 2, you need to be in spot 12 to meet your new plane and you're already late. Superb.
Catering gave you five meals for a full flight of hungry passengers at six pm. Be prepared to have trash thrown your way, comments that would make your grandmother blush and a lot of eye rolling all the while holding the perfect flight attendant smile.
And then there's just the life matters.
I've been up since 3am, haven't eaten all day and have purely lived off of coffee for the past six hours and currently have five out of fourteen hours left to go.
Did I put deodorant on this morning? As you reach up to close overhead bins.
Is this yogurt form last week before I left for a four day? Or from two weeks ago before a six day? Definitely two weeks ago, spitting out the only food in fridge.
Is it Monday? No, Sunday....or is it Thursday?
The point is, for anyone, not just flight attendants it can be hard to view the glass in front of you as half full. I struggle with it daily, sometimes by the minute. Other days, life is good and nothing can bring me down. What's your half full-half empty list?
