Dilemma

Finally the waiting is all over. I’ve finally received my next month roster, the wait was almost torturing. Why is it torturing? Not knowing where you will be for the next month is no fun and no joke at all plus your following month’s earning are base on your roster. *Sigh*. Our life, as a flight crew is not as rosy as it seems to be. Yes… we get to go to lots of places where a lot of people can only dream about plus we get paid to go there. Marvelous isn’t it? But why am I whining about it?

Imagine being us, your life is plan out for you by the company, where you’ll be dining, where you’ll sleep and when you’ll be available for your family. It’s all been plan out by the company. And your family will have to learn to accommodate to your schedule or to have gathering without your presence. We flight crew (not forgotten those who worked on shifts too have the same arrangement minus the constant traveling) don’t get any weekends off days or public holidays and if you want to apply for leave on those days, you got to apply at least 1 month ahead or maybe more, if you intend to apply for leave for Chinese New Year or Hari Raya or Christmas. There’s no such thing as last minute leave application, so unlike others who worked at the office with fixed working days. Even with the roster being planned out for you since last month, at times, your availability can be changed at last minute, due to operational requirement.

My hubby has asked me if I would be free on June, 30th (our 2nd wedding anniversary) and guess what my reply is. You got it right; we will have to wait for the June’s roster to be out first. Then we can plan our date. Ha! Ha! Lucky for me my husband got use to planning things around my schedule. After 5 years being with me.
If I’m so unhappy with this whole situation; why don’t I just quit flying and be a stay at home mum or look for other ground job. Simply said, just QUIT it, and stop whining!!

To be fair, when I applied for the job, it has already been made known to me that this will happen. My life will be plan out by the company. And I’ve agreed to it. So what’s there to whine about? No one’s force you to apply for this job anyway. The reason I applied for this job is because just like many of you out there; I want to see the world. But after 13 years of flying, have I seen it all? No, there are still some places which I’ve not been too. E.g. Beijing, which is one of the most popular tourist destination, but I’ve yet to leave my foot print there. I still have many other places that I want to visit, but I guess I’ll have to apply for annual leave first and wait for its approval before I start planning.
As bad as it seems to be after reading the earlier paragraphs but there’s good in this job. For example; I get an average of 10 off days in a month plus 30 days annual leave with medical benefits (inclusive of dental treatment) and not forgetting the annual FOC ticket for my dependent and myself, not bad if I were to compare to the rest of you out there in the office, with the perks that I’m getting. Besides all these perks from the company, there’s some other luxuries as well, for instance I get to go shopping when the mall is quiet or how I can take my time while paying the bills, as I don’t have to rush back to my desk, as my break time is almost up. (Touchy!!)

If it is so great, why did you whine so much earlier on??? Why? It’s all because that I’ve Aidan now and I don’t want to be separated from him. I miss him for every hour or day that he’s away from me. Again, quit flying then…

But I can’t, because I want to earn money for my own living or for Aidan. Not to say that my husband didn’t give me any money at all for the household or extra for our treats, in actual fact he has given us all that he has. Didn’t I want to spend all of my time with Aidan, watching him grow up day by day? Yes I do want to be by Aidan’s side all time but I also want to make my own money rather than relying on my husband for every needs and wants of my life. I want to have some control or security in my life, to me, to have my own money is the least control I can have in my life. Least with me working, Aidan would have more savings for his future. None of us can predict the future; by continuing to work at least I can be rest assure that in future if anything were to happen to my husband or if anything at all were to happened, I still have the capability to have a roof over Aidan’s head and to have food on the table for him. But there's always a choice in life, it is fine that you want to continue to work, but you still have a choice between going back to flying or to look for a ground job. Either one of the choice i made i would still have to be away from Aidan, might as well i carry on with what i love the most... Traveling.

There are always 2 sides to an argument or story. Let us all be our own judge to our own life…