Intro Blog - A Bit About Me!
Hey hey hey! I started this blog about a year ago and am just now getting around to posting something…tsk tsk tsk! I guess my hesitation stemmed from not knowing where to start so I guess I’ll just start from the beginning with a brief introduction.
About Me
My name is Sonia. I am a flight attendant for a major US airline. I kind of stumbled upon this job by accident. My love of travel began early on; for as long as i can remember really. I’ve always loved the hustle & bustle of an airport and was always in awe of airplanes but I never envisioned myself working on them.
My parents divorced when I was young so I travelled back and forth with my brother as a UM (Unaccompanied Minor) for a while. We spent most of our school breaks in San Juan, PR with my grandparents. The trip that solidified my travel obsession was Rome, Italy when I was 19yo. One of my besties from college had a bad break up with her bf so she ran off to Rome and ended up spending a year there. Naturally, I jumped on the chance to go visit. I was, and still am, in awe of Rome. Maybe I’ll do a whole separate blog on that trip.
Anyhow, the trip wasn’t very expensive because I went during Thanksgiving week. That’s when I learned that the busiest travel time within the US is very reasonable to go abroad. That was it for me! I proceeded to travel every year thereafter until my son was born.
Education
I studied political science in college with a focus on international relations so I’d always planned on a career that involved some type of travel. I interned at United Nations headquarters right after college and planned on taking the foreign service exam to join the US State Department. Then September 11th happened and everything changed. So much was happening in the country and in the world at that time that I became disenchanted with the idea of foreign service so I went to grad school instead. While I was there, I had a friend that got a job at an airline. I’d ask her all of the common questions that I now know every flight attendant gets, “where are you going”, “how many flights do you do a day”, etc. The airlines were expanding at that time. My friend encouraged me to apply. I was ready to go back to work so I went to a couple of information sessions at a couple of airlines. What I didn’t realize at the time was that the information session was the first interview. I was invited to training in some other city by the first airline (I really don’t remember where). My friend advised me to turn down the invitation because not only would I need to spend a few weeks in that other city for training, but then I’d most likely be based in some other city and would either have to relocate or commute at the beginning and end of each trip. I didn’t want to turn them down because I hadn’t yet heard back from the airline that was based in Atlanta but my friend insisted that they would call. Sure enough, as soon as I turned the other airline down, I received the call from the Atlanta based airline and so began my airline career.
Flight Attendant Career
I didn’t plan on making it a career. It just kind of happened. The thing about working for an airline is that it’s very difficult to walk away from it. It gets into your blood. Most of us can’t leave the flexibility, the relative ease of the job, the pay, the vacation time and of course, the travel. On average I work 3 days a week, I get 4 weeks vacation a year (not that I really need it), I make good money for working as little as I do, and I can pick up and go pretty much wherever and whenever I want for little to no cost. I can live anywhere in the world as long as I can make it back to my base for my trips. Best of all, my job stays at the airport. I don’t take work home with me. For me that meant I was free to be a mommy when my son was little. I can pick up another side gig if I want, as many flight attendants do. Lastly, I can continue working for the airline for as long as I’m physically able to do the job. I don’t ever have to retire if I don’t want to. In fact, this is a lot of people’s retirement jobs. I’ve been a flight attendant for 14 years and I can’t see that ending anytime soon. This is my retirement job too!
Blog
Anyhow, that’s just a little about me. Here’s what I expect this blog to be about but I’m open to go in the direction it steers.
Purpose:
A place to share my travel experiences
A place to give a peek into the flight attendant lifestyle
A place to share my love of beauty, fashion & home
Anyhow, that’s just a little bit about me. If any of it resonates with you, please consider returning to this site and also following me, SoniaStayFly on my other social media - IG, TikTok, YouTube. Thanks for stopping by & I hope to see you here again soon.