On the benefits of jumpseat therapy
And meeting my mentor
A lot of things can happen in the jumpseat.
I’ve had my palm read (with pleasing results), dissected relationships, and of course gossiped about passengers and other crew members.
Our instructors warned us in training that passengers can hear more than you think from the galleys, so be careful what you say. I’m always amused when I non-rev and hear a flight attendant talking about a late night out or complaining about a passenger on that very flight.
There’s something about the jumpseat that makes me share things I normally wouldn’t with near strangers. I often sit down and words come out of my mouth, whether I want them to or not.
We’re squished next to a crew member in a confined space, buckled in after the safety video plays during taxi, takeoff and then again after the cabin has been prepared for landing.
We’re not supposed to look at our phones or any other distraction during this time, so it’s a chance for some old-fashioned conversation, side by side. Therapy can also happen during red-eyes when we’re trying to fight our body clocks and stay awake.
On my last rotation I happened to discover my mentor right there on the jumpseat next to me.
I already have an aunt and a mother who are current and former flight attendants, respectively, and they definitely gave me the inspiration to take up this crazy life style.
But I'm a person that needs really specific examples to be motivated to stick to a path and give up things like sleep, access to fresh air and sunlight for, well, anything.
For instance, I'm convinced that if a professor had pulled me aside in journalism school and said, "Megan, you can work for a couple years, grinding away at a daily newspaper at a desk and THEN become a freelance journalist and travel the world," I would've done it.
But as amazing as my journalism professors were, nobody did that. (I did take a class call Freelance Journalism. But that professor never pointed to me in class and said, YOU. YOU CAN DO THIS. I told you - I need to be banged over the head with this stuff. We could analyze my self esteem or what it means to be a woman, but let’s not go there.)
Alas, I found myself traveling and writing, but not as a travel writer.
So when I met my new mentor, I saw my future stretch before me.
It just so happens her name is also Megan-spelled the right way- and she's also blond and from Southern California.
Finally I had met her! Another flight attendant who loves being outside, adventuring, sleep and making the most of every layover. While most crews I work with give me ample insight and entertainment, I can't say I want to be them.
Many other flight attendants I work with languish in their hotel rooms, not stepping a foot outside during a layover when we already spend SO much time in a tube, and avoid any environment that isn't climate controlled. If you’ve been paying attention, you know they’re called slam clickers.
But not my mentor.
She’s lived in the Pacific Northwest for her entire adult life and raised her kids there. She started with the airline about a decade ago. Her and a close friend climbed Mount Olympus, Baker and Rainer together.
She works mostly over the weekend so that in her off-time she can gravel bike, ski and hike solo or with her family on less crowded trails.
On a late evening flight to Denver she told me all the things I should do in Juneau, AK whenever I land a trip there. Some of her suggestions include:
E-bike around Douglass Island
Walk out of town to a place where you sit down at picnic tables and crack open crabs by the shore
Show up at a seaplane dock at a certain time to list yourself on standby and fly over glaciers, island and peaks
Visit a bar that serves locally-made gin in $8 cocktails
Hike up Mount Roberts
I was drooling.
Sometimes her husband tags along with her on trips, like on the Honolulu layover where they’ll rent paddle boards or go surfing.
Any job has its setback and benefits. For some, it’s long hours in front of a screen, yet getting to work from home and sleeping in your own bed every night. For others, its strange sleep schedules, delays and unsavory characters, yet the total freedom to go anywhere in the world with the most flexible schedule.
On the tough days, I’ll remind myself of the lifestyle that’s possible with a hat tip towards my most recent jumpseat companion.
Stay fly,
Megan
Introducing…
Travel Tidbits
Oh the places I go with my benefits!
Jamaica
Land of Bob Marley, gorgeous waterfalls, the Maroons, several slave rebellions, rum, white sand beaches and even whiter tourists.
Stay on the Negril side for beach time, good food and not much else. For Rastafarian culture, historical tours that go in-depth about the island’s dark history and the Bob Marley museum, stay near Kingston instead.
It’s easy to feel like a guppie in a school full of tourists on the northwest end of the island, but that’s how it goes. You can still get doses of culture in the food, brief chats with taxi drivers and vendors, and pieces of history on a large-group Appleton Rum tour.
It’s not a place suitable for even the most intrepid backpackers, as it’s very undeveloped outside of the tourism hot spots. From our van tour view (admittedly far removed perspective-wise), we saw mostly small, road side shacks serving bammy (ground up cassava root) and fresh caught fish. Our driver said that people will start building a home and run out of money because the mortgage rates are so high (as much as 17 percent!), so many houses look half finished with exposed rebar and roofless rooms.
Where in most other countries I’ve traveled to you’ll find small outposts with a market and some restaurants, the contrast of wealth between the tourism areas and local towns was stark.
