So, as many of you may be aware, I recently (as in yesterday) returned from an extended visit to NS. My Dad had back surgery, that was twice delayed, and a couple of complications, that had me away from AB for almost a month. It was a very stressful time for all of us, but I might add here, that Dad is doing well. This is, of course, the most important thing. To try and make a relatively short story long, didn’t get alot of sleep, wasn’t comfortable being a teenager again, or at least perceived that way, was terribly depressed and unhappy when I arrived at the airport in Halifax. I hate leaving NS every time I do and it is never easy to be heading away, after a particularly GOOD trip, so relatively harder after a not so good one. Have I set the scene well?
I arrived quite early in the morning, as my flight was supposed to leave at 740, only to find it was to be delayed half an hour. No big deal in the grand scheme of things. Gave me time to grab a high octane coffee from good old Tim Horton, and try one of their new breakfast English muffin sandwich deal. Very good by the way, in case you were wondering. Listened to some Nickelback on my ipod. The lyrics in alot of their newest CD are absolutely not family-friendly, so I was singing along, just not out loud. I really don’t enjoy offending people, especially if I need to be in their company, in confined quarters for like 5 or 6 hours! Not too dumb of me.
While I had my headphones on, and when my eyes were opened, I happened to notice a lady circulating among us, that was very obviously an employee of the airlines. No one was in their usual uniform, as they were all sporting red t-shirts and jeans in support of Valentine’s Day. *Note* that particular holiday could be another entire topic for another day, but probably might fall into the “ugly”, but I digress. Did I forget to mention I am entirely random?
Anyway, I over heard this lady asking women what they had gotten for Valentines, and seriously giving the guys who hadn’t stepped up to the plate a hard time. She was giving a gentleman a particularly tough go because his response was something to the effect that she wasn’t going to be at the airport to greet him, so she wasn’t getting anything. She was murmuring to anyone close enough to hear, that he was in BIG trouble for saying THAT! She continued to tease him unmercifully about using the laptop in his lap to order flowers, and that it was never too late to do that. It was all in good fun, and truly had the rest of us smiling to ourselves and kinda hoping she didn’t maybe single us out. I, of course, would have enjoyed the attention.
When they called us to board, she hovered around while we were in line, making funny little comments. She asked a young girl ahead of me how old she was, and what grade in school. The young girl said she didn’t go to school, so this woman, without hesitation, asked her where she worked if she didnt go to school! The young lady laughed and said she was home schooled, to which the response was a question about her grade level. Grade five. Well, our friend the WestJet employee quickly gets on her microphone, linked to the flight attendants on our flight, and promptly orders up some grade five homework to be served to our young friend. She then asked her what is her favourite subject, which was Math and orders her some math homework. She then asks her her least favourite subject, and interjects a request for LOTS of social studies! Well, we were all laughing at the point, at 8 in the morning.
I must say I did make a comment that may have offended any of the Albertans in line, at this point. Something to the effect, that we wouldn’t get any of THAT in Alberta, but hey, I tend to speak my mind. Now what was on my mind, and what I then said to her, was here was a lady that enjoyed her job. Her response to me was that she loved her job and it was the best job in the world. Good on her! It was so refreshing, in this day and age of barely being acknowledge by service personal sometimes, to see a lady who was having fun, and getting other people to have fun right along with her, doing what she is paid to do. It was early, the flight was late, there were screaming kids we all KNEW were getting on OUR flight, but we were all smiling.
Seriously, how many times in the last few months, hell maybe YEARS, have you watched someone truly happy to be at work? Probably can count it on one hand, or maybe not at all. I think there are huge kudos deserving of this, nameless person. I don’t know her name, probably none of us do, but I, for one, will not forget her genuine warm and friendly smile anytime soon. She made me realize, I too want a job that I love and I think is “the best job in the world”. I would really love it if we all did, actually. Can you imagine a world where we ALL infect others with smiles, and good cheer? Beautiful thought, but likely very unattainable… there are some pretty crappy jobs out there, that’s for damn sure!
Well, that is a short story that I did manage to make long. I just am so happy that such a small incident has inspired me to sit down and do this writing thing. I was terribly excited to be sitting on the plane, after boarding, knowing that I wanted to share my experience with folks. I could hardly wait to start hammering away, and had I not been distracted in Calgary airport, I may have started this there, but good conversation is always going to come first with me! True test now is whether or not anyone cares enough to READ my thoughts…..stay tuned
Hi, I'm Cindy Samuel and I proofread books.