So, I just got home from 6 days of flying (2 back-to-back 3 day trips) & let me tell you, I feel like road kill. Let's just say that if I were to cut myself right now I would bleed coffee...aka the life force of flight crews.
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| Thanks for being there for me during the rough times, love... |
On this last trip, I noticed a bad habit I have developed during my years as an FA. I SAY SORRY TOO MUCH. I noticed it when Kim, another FA, dropped some coats and said sorry...then I said sorry for not noticing ASAP...then she said sorry because I crouched down to help her pick them up...then I said sorry for grabbing the same hanger that she did. I SAY SORRY TOO MUCH!!!!
How did this happen??? I couldn't help but wonder. Granted, I have always been raised to show respect & display lady like manners (stop laughing some of you...I am a lady when push comes to shove), so "sorry", "please" and "thank you" have been a part of my daily vocab since childhood...but this is overboard. After mulling it over I realized that this habit came from my line of work. All day I apologize for things...over and over again.
* "Sorry, the flight is delayed for maintenance."
* "Sorry, due to severe weather your flight is cancelled."
* "Sorry, we weren't catered with peanuts on this flight."
* "Sorry I bumped into you with the cart."
* "Sorry, we can only serve one drink at a time per person."
Then I noticed another theme...I say sorry ALOT for things that I really have NO CONTROL over, but I can't say what I really want to say sometimes, so I just say SORRY. It's my way of biting my tongue. There are days, days where I have been away from home for almost a week & have been up since 3AM, that I would LOVE to say the following...
* "Yes, our flight is delayed for maintenance and maybe you should thank your lucky stars for that so we don't end up as flaming rubble at the end of the runway."
* "Dude, I am not God & really can't control the weather...but I sure am happy we aren't going to try to fly through Blizzard 2013 because though I know I can evacuate a plane if we crash, I don't really want to prove it the hard way."
* "It's a 39 minute flight, if you are THAT hungry (and picky) then why didn't you grab something on the way to the gate???"
* "That sucks that you got hit by my cart, but since you have seen it in the aisle for the last 20 minutes & knew we were coming, maybe you could have removed your outstretched legs from said aisle. I don't have eyes in the back of my head, so I didn't see them there until it was too late."
* "If you get trashed off of the 5 beers you would like to order right this second & slam all at once during this 1.5 hour flight, I am going to get in a ton of trouble per the FAA (who are the ones who say only 1 drink at a time). Though it might be mildly amusing to see you rip your shirt off & run down the aisle yelling about how you just want to be free to be yourself, I can't run the risk that you will be the other type of drunk who gets hostile after a few & will require the police officers and paperwork that must be completed before I am allowed to go to sleep."
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| How I look... |
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| How I feel... |
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| How I cope... |
It's kind of taken over in my "real life" though. The last guy I dated during the summer would tell me all the time "you don't need to always say you are sorry. You say it about 20 times a day for stuff that doesn't even matter." I just figured he was trying to be sweet and blew it off. Oopsie. As a flight attendant it's part of the territory...you just smile and say sorry because that's what you are paid to do. You train yourself to grin & bear it so that the customer leaves happy (or happy-ish...some people there is just no pleasing, try as you might). Even when you wish people would say sorry for things like making you repeat yourself 4 times because they refuse to take their earbuds out (don't get me started on this topic, that's a blog for a different day), or when they elbow you right in the hip or thigh when you are in the aisle (I have perma bruises all over my upper legs from this). Even then, I apologize to them because clearly the customer is always right & I am a good FA who likes to stay out of my manager's office.
Yeah, I mean I am human too and sometimes I do legit need to say sorry. You know, like for dropping tomato juice on someone's freshly pressed khaki's. Or there was the time I accidentally elbowed some guy right in the temple because I lost my balance during taxi. Ironically, those people who really do deserve the billion sorry's I heap upon them are usually (granted, I said usually) the ones who are the most chill & brush it off with a simple "it was an accident' it's ok". This gal needs to learn how to put value back into that single word in my daily life, so I am vowing here in the world of the internet (and we all know if it is on the internet, it MUST be true) that I am going to stop using "sorry" as my instant "go to".
Sorry I am not sorry for quitting this constant being sorry business... :)
:Oh I had a lot to say, was thinking on my time away
I missed you and things weren't the same
'Cause everything inside it never comes out right."
~ "Sorry" by Buckcherry
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