At the moment that I’m writing this post (Sunday evening, June 30, 2013 to be exact) I am on a United Airline Express flight from Cleveland to Charlotte. All I can see out the window to my left is the white of a bank of clouds. But inside the plane is a ray of light that I wish I could experience on every flight I take. Her name is Debbie. She is the stewardess, and without exaggeration, the best flight attendant I have met in my 17 years of flying experiences.
It could be that she gave me an entire can of Diet Coke instead of the four sips in a cup of ice that I am usually handed on a flight, (anyone that knows me knows that this is a significant gesture, skyrocketing a person to the top of my favorites list) but one other stewardess has graced me in this way, so that isn’t it. She also wrapped the can with a napkin, which was a lovely touch, but not worthy of the top flight attendant award either. She complimented my sweater (bonus points boost), but again, not what put Debbie over the top in my mind.
To be honest, it wasn’t any one thing. It was everything she did. Upon boarding, she enthusiastically greeted every passenger on the plane with Sound of Music quality cheer and a smile that went from her chin to her eyes. She engaged in conversation with the kids on the flight. She chatted with each person as she served them drinks. When we hit a patch of turbulence, her reassuring “Whew! That was fun! Wasn’t it?” made you feel less like you might plummet from the sky to your death and more like you were on a ride at Disney. She was happy and spunky and obviously loved her job.
Just to be sure, I asked her. Yup, she loves her job. She loves her customers. Her least favorite thing was when she was forced to play the bad guy and enforce the rules, but hey…who wants to do that?
I’ve met average flight attendants from a variety of airlines that did their job professionally and I appreciated them. I’ve met flight attendants from a variety of airlines that were snappy and grouchy and appeared to be having a really bad, no good day. I can understand that. Being in charge of a flying hunk of metal filled with tired, frustrated adults and the occasional screaming toddler takes a special sort of person. But it takes a saint to do it with a smile and a happy heart.
Debbie’s attitude set the tone for everyone on that two hour flight. When she told a passenger near me that “I have the best customers! I just love them!” I believed her. And I felt a little special because I was one of them.
We all have the opportunity every day to be a Debbie to someone.
If it’s your job to man the drive-thru window at McDonalds, be the CFO of a major corporation or break the tension at 30,000 feet…you can choose to kick average under the bed in the morning and be awesome. So can I. And we should…because the world needs more Debbie’s.
Photo credit: Nick-K (Nikos Koutoulas) / Foter.com / CC BY-NC