Okay - I'm really not a rabid member of the Skyhigh fanclub, but the reality is this industry sucks. My timing might have been a little off, and I may have made some poor choices along the way, but I really think I've done most of the right things at the right times. I'm in my mid 40's, and wondering where I go if my current carrier tanks. If I were 30, I could gamble on a lot of different places. I did that almost 15 years ago, and the roulette wheel turned up on green for me. Most of the people I work with are looking around themselves and asking the same questions.

It's not a question of five years of sacrifice - been there done that, didn't mind paying the price. The issue is if five years leads to another five years, followed by another five years, and another five years, and so on. Except for a fortunate few, is there really any future in this industry? Sure you might hit the jackpot and hire on with a winning carrier when you're 28 - or you'll bounce from one place to another searching for that place where you can hopefully upgrade in less than ten years and try and earn something for the future rather than paying last month's bills. My kids deserve better than I am able to give them, thanks to the corner I'm painted into at this time.

It's easy to claim it's just sour grapes for a naysayer. As an analogy [actual events tonight], I bought a bottle of wine this evening for a small gathering. I paid almost twice as much for that bottle as I did for one just a couple of days ago, but it was what I could locate at the time. The bottle of a couple days ago was quite pleasant, tonight's was simply awful. Am I the bad guy for admitting tonight's bottle was putrid rather than lavishing false superlatives upon it?