Travel a Vocation

My biggest fortune was choosing this lifetime to be in a family with the most amazing parents.  A stay-at-home mom who did everything for her children and my dad.  To this day she is fully committed to this role, although she does not see the gratitude, we have for her and all that she is done. 

Where we are is a testimony to all the work she has done and continues to do, daily. 

After 30 years in aviation, my dad was forced to retire, somewhere in his mid 50’s.  Changes in aircraft, aviation, and evolving airlines, replace the beast that is Boeing 747 Classic.  Flight engineers were no longer needed.  The sacrifices he made being away from his family, but oh the opportunities he gave us.  Listening to him now talk about his “previous life” as he calls it, I often reflect on just how much he must and does miss it.

I can say this because, being in the travel industry myself now for over 29 years, I know its path that you don’t choose rather it chooses you.  Like many professions, teachers, doctors, and the like thereof, it’s a vocation.  Qualification is all relative, each with its own struggle and each with its own joy.

It’s taken me 29 years, to know this, to realise and appreciate it.  As a young girl, I had always been given the opportunity to follow my own dreams, and to find my place on the planet. 

Having grown up in the aviation industry and on the seat of the beast of a 747, I had always wanted to be an air hostess.  After matriculation in 1992, we were entering a new South Africa, one where the barriers of the past were being torn down and a profession that carried a legal age of 21.  I had to do something between the age of 18 and 21 to qualify and after thinking about many things, including interior design, my folks finally decided for me.

One day my father gave me the opportunity to go fly with a colleague and see if being a pilot would be something I would consider.  Thinking about it now, as I write, he might have loved this for me more than I have ever known.  See my brother was deaf in one ear so it was physically impossible for him to be one.  On the other hand, a profession that was just opening to women could have been a path I could take.  Lazy at the time, and the thought of exams, ratings and a career of ongoing studying was just not calling me. 

Always wanting the quick way out. 
A Travel Agent is what you can do, they said.  It will be a good bridge between flying and something you can fall back on.  So, I did and 29 years later, here I am. 

At the start of the pandemic when the world was upside down, I started my blogging journey without even realising it.  Not until, Jonny, my “IT” Guy said Paula, you need to blog, you are doing it already on Facebook (FB).  Again, not listening, I ignored it, and two years went by.  Posting regular updates on FB, and yes, Jonny, I know you are my brand manager not my “IT” guy.  For shits and giggles though, had to put it in here.

So back to the start of the pandemic, when nobody knew what was going on and the world was shutting down, the travel industry went from hero to zero overnight.  Money stopped flowing in and the world and planes grounded to a halt. 
Always being a fan of Ellen D, I was following her humour on the situation, till one day, she threw a puzzle out because it was missing one piece, in between banter with her Hollywood Friends.  So I blasted her on FB and had my 2c say.  Still to this day, I am not sorry and for 2 years I have shared the story of the post with many. 

Funny story a year into the pandemic, I landed up in the design industry, with great excitement and determination for my role, I hit the ground running.  Only to be given 24 hours’ notice in June of 2022.  It hit me, in over 28 years of my working profession nobody had ever given me notice.  I was lost, I was mortified, I was confused.

It took me over a month, maybe even two, to fiddle and faff and find myself again.  With no other option, I decided it was time to pour all my energy back into my travel business and give it the much-needed CPR it needed to come back from the ashes.

See the thing is, when you do something with so much passion, joy, and skill, you never have a Monday, you just do it.  Like pilots feel before take-off.  How my dad felt on every single flight of his very long career.  It’s not a job, it’s pure joy and love.

So, Ellen, my post was about taking, a diverse situation and rather than complaining and whilst sitting in your ivory tower and complaining, not having to worry about your next pay cheque, we should rather take stock of everything. 

Adversity breeds creativity, and from creativity comes the best versions of people and of business.  It’s in this adversity that we find solutions to problems.  If there were no problems, business as we know it would, absolutely, not exist.

A very special lady, I call her Mom!