The Soultown! Volume III: Issue 10 OCTOBER 2019 | Page 8

FEATURE
East High Grad Flies High in the Friendly Skies
LAS VEGAS, NV - So here I am, a candidate to be a
flight attendant for an airline. Even though I had been
at this for a while, I didn’t know that it would happen.
I had no clue what to expect, I just knew that my life
was changing and that I needed to get prepared.
I graduated from East High School in 2006 and
dreamed of being a flight attendant. After informing
everyone I had made it past the interview stage, we
were all so excited. I was bombarded with questions,
in which I had no answers and wanted to know what
were the next steps.
The next step was training. I waited a month for the
airline to let me know if I cleared the background as
well as the drug test. I wasn’t nervous, but I wanted
a time line. Finally, this journey would take 3.5-weeks
-- training. I had questions. Who was I going to
train with? Will it be hard? Had I saved enough
money? What I would miss leaving home? I was
overwhelmed with emotions,
but I had to keep my head in
the game.
I worked. I saved, and I
studied. The study guide
consisted of airline/aircraft
Courtesy Photo
Gabrielle proudly displays her certificate of completion.
abbreviations, more than 100 airport codes, military
time, and the safety passages. My time was limited.
I am good at memorizing, so I learned the airport
codes first, then packed. I double check to make sure
I had everything I needed. Must have items included:
a working watch, black slacks, white oxford shirts,
black heels, a tote bag, school supplies, passport,
and a host of other things.
The day came. It was time for me to leave the state
of Iowa. I had everything I needed and I was excited.
I made it to Denver nine hours before I had to start
training.
I met a fellow trainee on the elevator. She wished
me good luck! I This was going to be a piece of cake
if I could get to my room and go over the safety
passage I had procrastinated on learning.
We all met in the breakfast seating area in the hotel.
Awaiting the shuttle, we introduced ourselves to one
another. We were a group of 15. On the shuttle, we
all sat in silence not knowing what to expect. The
rules were solidified before we entered the building.
“Leave absolutely nothing in the testing room
when you are done, you
“... Immediately, I went back to the hotel at the end
of the day, shut off my phone and studied that safety
passage until my eyes burned. I had one more time
to mess up on a verbal. I had to understand it and
recite it verbatim, otherwise, I would have failed.”
Oct. 2019 • The Soultown International Magazine • Celebrating 2 years • Connecting Our Cultures to Our Cyber & Conscious Communities • thesoultown.com
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Photo by j on Unsplash