LAX to ATL to LAX, Again (And Again, Hopefully)

I remember a former co-worker, whom I respectfully called Papa John, telling me “if I’ma be catching flights, it’s go’on be somewhere good.. I ain’t spending no money to go back home to Alabama.”

The conversation came up because another of my piled together days off had just passed or was coming up and he asked about my destination. When I either said Atlanta or New Orleans, he said, “again?!”

Headed to my house from LAX, after a quick turn-around trip to Atlanta, in this very moment as I tap these words into my Squarespace app, I couldn’t disagree with Papa John’s philosophy more.

Simply to hug and kiss my dear sweet 84-year-old grandmother, it’s well worth hopping on the same flight over and over again.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m an adventurer, of course I enjoy exploring new places. And before I know it, if God says the same, I’ll be doing a lot more of that too.

No one will see this post, as I won’t share the link anywhere and I don’t have the type of website traffic where folks are browsing my site tabs at random, so I’ll say, to mark the date electronically on my end in case I do decide to start sharing about this journey publicly one day… One month to the date into my new year (that started Dec. 8th), I received a conditional job offer from a major U.S. airline.

How is my fare in this taxi already reading $39 dollars and we’re six minutes and 2.2 miles away from my house when I asked this man BEFORE I agreed to get in this vehicle how much it would cost and he said $30-35. See, you try to support independent drivers and cut out the middle man sucking up profits (Uber, Lyft, etc.) and look at the foolishness. That’s so annoying. He showed me one route when he typed in my address, then intentionally took the longer route to rack up more miles.

I digress… I’m almost home. Let me pay this man and get on. 50 dollars. Girl. It’s less the money and more the principal; it irks my nerves when a person tries to get over on somebody. But whatever. My Teedie Terri sent me $25 towards a rideshare before I even took off from ATL and I’m glad I even had somewhere to be coming back from in the first place. I could’ve not had to go to Atlanta for a face-to-face at all.

Coming down the escalator at LAX, headed towards ground transport, it somewhat settled in what had transpired today as I glanced at a gentleman not too far ahead that was a fellow candidate with whom I’d chatted prior to the interview process. His day had a different closing than mine. Dang, I thought sympathetically, to have gone across the country and… Wait. Dang! I thought emphatically, I went across the country and came back with a *job.

*conditional job offer.. dependent upon passing a background check, drug test, the operational needs still being there, then completing almost two months of rigorous training

A hundred-twenty THOUSAND applicants. A finely dressed good 50 or so that made it in the room.

And I brought home an offer.

Whoah.

There has to be a reason, there has to be. Even if it’s merely (or mostly) par hasard, or maybe even some pretty privilege I’m newly learning that I have, there’s a reason I was one of the lucky number of 7 candidates selected for this highly sought after role as a flight attendant with the best airline based on this continent.

The Universe is conspiring for my good and I’m looking forward to what more it has in store.

I’m grateful. I’m blessed. Praise The Lord somebody. Amen.