Originally Posted by CaptDave

I've been a ramp rat, a construction worker building houses in summer heat, phone network installer, ran a mowing company for a few years, owned a small business, worked in factory's and warehouses (once at a has brown processing company), worked as a farm hand, a fast food worker, and so on throughout my life.

I'd find myself always looking up when a plane flew over. Started flying regularly at age 12 and ended up making the decision and commitment to become an airline pilot then. I didn't actually start u til I was 23 and got my first airline job just in time for the 2008 ordeal.

All I can say is, even on it's worst day (layovers, penalty box's, delays, grumpy pax or FA's, mx issues, etc), this "job" is by far the most rewarding and amazing opportunities out there. Sure, we can always make more money or be home more but the views we see, the machines we operate, and the stories we fill our memories with are, for lack of better words, priceless.

When the economy broke in 2008, I spent a long number of years doing odd jobs here and there just to help make ends meet. It got so bad at one point, I was hunting coyotes for livestock farmers making $35 per coyote just to help protect their herds. Every time a plane would fly over, some of them I had flown, my heart just sank a little further because I knew where I belonged but couldn't be there, no matter how bad I wanted it or how hard I tried. Even with my qualifications at the time, the economy just destroyed any chance of me flyi g for anyone.

If you're not passionate about this "job" anymore, leave. Make room the guys/girls that are stuck in the ground that have that desire to be there.

Do not take it for granted. Jobs are complicated but dlyi g is easy and amazing.