Originally Posted by
jedinein
It ain't over 'til you take your last breath.
Deciding to not put up with the BS that is the airlines does not make one a failure. I almost quit on the spot putting up with parking tag BS. What are you willing to handle and what are you willing to put up with?
I grew up with my father in construction. We moved more times than the military, more times than those in the witness protection program, even more times than pilots, combined. Dad was gone for weeks and sometimes months. We'd get to move on short notice. Pay sometimes sucked. Construction projects sometimes ended with a chain around a gate and a note, "everyone is fired". Sometimes there wasn't a note. This world is going to kick you, beat you, work you hard, spit you out, and all you have to show for it is a nice headstone which may get replaced to something that is easier to maintain, or removed completely to make way for a new bypass. Life sucks, then you die. And in a hundred years, you probably won't matter anyways, except possibly to be another annoying name to learn in someone's history class.
The secret, and possibly the insanity of this, is to be happy where you are, even as you strive for something better, and no matter which choices you make. That really irritates other people who think you should be at least as miserable as they are, if not more miserable.
I agree with much of what you have written about however it is important to be dissatisfied at times. If I were to have accepted my situation as a gas station attendant then that is where I would still be. Instead I used my dissatisfaction to propel me through college and into what I thought was going to be a better future.
Some would say that I should have been
satisfied with Horizon Air. Their advise might be to "just let go of your dreams and settle with 9 legs a day". To that kind of thinking I say "No thanks". I sacrificed and paid dues for more than what life at a regional can offer.
I am happy with where I am at. The point of my story it to bring to others the challenges and hardships that many face in this industry. I believe that the return offered is not in congress with the effort and sacrifice it takes for some of us to get there.
Who cares really right?? I mean, we all are going to be dust one day anyhow. However, I would rather spend my days doing something that values me and my contributions and rewards me in kind. If others are prepared to accept less then so be it. I am still reaching for the brass ring.
Skyhigh