around the world in six months

it's a small world after all

have you ever been stalked by a 28 year old gay man? not unheard of, but still pretty odd. knowing when i work and request time off is already pushing boundaries, but knowing when/where i travel when my boyfriend is in town is beyond me (oh, and now he knows where i live.)

other than that, i enjoy being a part of the aviation industry. my favorite part is working the front counter and telling people they are going to miss their flight (evil, i know.) like ma’am what do you MEAN you didn’t check in for your month long cancun trip and decide to show up to the airport with an oversize bag for everyone in your family TWENTY MINUTES before the plane takes off? (it happens much more often than you’d think) from what i’ve observed, people become 4 times more unintelligent when they are on airport property.

i also work the boarding gate, load luggage (aka tetris on steroids) and clean the plane. a new cost effective hobby i picked up is tactically acquiring biscoff cookies so that I can make cheesecake (i also have a lot of pretzels.) and surprisingly, dumping the lavatory waste from 8 flights a day isn’t that bad.

in da plane belly yum yum

the craziest part about working for an airline is being able to travel. i’ve spent over 70 hours in the air, visited utah, arizona, texas, north carolina, ohio, georgia, & illinios, and flew through 11 airports. so no, i have not actually gone around the world, but i’ve gone to concerts, visited friends, and had numerous airport chais (chai reviews will return soon😉) i was supposed to go to cabo one weekend, but i got a triple dipper instead. you win some, you win some.

given that i started flying when i was 18 and would take 2 maybe 3 trips a year, having had 27 trips in 2025 is wild to me. i’m living by the mantras that life is too short to rot in bed and it is also too short to not be spending a little money. by a little, i mean a lot. (does money buy happiness in this economy?) oh btw i flew a plane (7 times actually!) the main thing that was holding me back from starting sooner was the financial aspect, but sometimes you have to spend a little to live a lot. the first time i flew was so exhilarating because it hit that i was finally starting my career path as a pilot. i built over 50 flight simulator hours while in school, but flying a real plane myself was so surreal.

first time flying!

the second time was when i was working the boarding gate and the pilots didn’t show up in time for the flight. my supervisor goes “ashley, you’ve flown a plane before right? can you take the wheel so we have an on-time departure?” and how could i pass up an opportunity like that?! i was so honored to be able to show off my skills and prove myself.

second time flying!

anyway that never happened. but all of my other flights have been so, so fun! in order to get a private pilot license (which is what i am working on right now) you need at least 40 hours of flight time. after that, i need to get an instrument rating (being able to legally fly in the clouds/night) and multi-engine rating (larger plane=more engines) then build up at least 1500 hours before i can have a commercial pilot license and fly professionally. 7 hours down, 1493 to go! (humble beginnings am I right?)