Episode 14

Well, back to my story: I did plays and shortfilms at school that year, as well we created with my class-mates and colleagues some amateur shortfilms. We did this to learn, to grow and gain experience. To seek out for our own opportunities, to create them. That’s how I spent all of the year 2010. Growing and learning in both acting schools and building up my resumé…

Since I was 18, I dreamed of moving to Los Angeles -The film capital-, and to live my life acting, in one of the biggest film cities in the world. -I even see myself at the Academy Awards Ceremony, I see the dress I’ll wear-. I set my goal to save up and move up there when I turned 21, as soon as I graduated from my acting career.

By September 2010 I was about to graduate from High School and I was studying acting. But I had to do something else -or so society said, so much so that I started believing it-. Since I was a little girl I was curious about being a flight attendant, I found it quite exciting. I never saw it as my goal but it definitely caught my attention. I only let it to be a remote fantasy because every time I said something about being keen to do it, my Mum would say something negative about it. What she said the most about it in a very demeaning way, was:

+”To be a flight attendant is like to be a waitress but on a plane”. -So what?-

So, all those comments when I was a little girl, limited me. But now that I am a grown-up I think about it, and there is absolutely nothing wrong with serving people, getting to know them, helping them…

Just when I was making a decision about my future -I don’t recall how but I ended up with the information about how awesome it was to flight with Emirates- All that admiration I had for that profession rushed back in. That company happened to be scouting in Paraguay next month, for new cabin crew. It was a big company and a huge salary, so my parents didn’t think it was a bad idea anymore. They bought me a nice suit like the flight attendants use, and drove me to the Sheraton Hotel for the interview.

That lounge room was filled with young people -like me- that dreamt about flying across the globe. That first group talk was awesome, they showed as videos and photos of where we would live in Dubai, they told us about the beach front apartment we’d be given, besides the high salary and all that world-traveling. Wow! It was a dream indeed. They measured my height -I am quite tall, so first test checked-. When it was my time to have a one-on-one interview, that’s when my dream fell apart like a balloon that’s been bursted. They told me the mínimum age requirement was 21 -I was about to turn 18-, that I should come back in three years time. Bummer!

Few days later, my dad -now excited with me being a flight attendant- showed me an ad from a big South American airline that was going to be scouting for new cabin members soon. -This time I made sure my age was within the requirements- I signed up. I arrived to the meeting at the hangar, we were so many people there. Again, group interview, then onto the next round and the next one after that. In each round, there were fewer of us left. I made it to the crucial round, the swimming test. My dad was so sure I was going to be eliminated because I never was a good swimmer. I only swam to survive and not to drown. Neither I was so sure I’d be able to overcome it.

I had hopes though, I trusted in myself and I was 100% willing to overcome my own limits. I went to the swimming club where the test was being held. I looked at the massive olimpic swimming pool with respect. -We had to go across it without stopping for even a second- I got into my marine blue one-piece swimsuit and jumped into the shallow part of the pool, to warm up with some of the girls I met on the previous rounds.