How I Became a Flight Attendant (After Everything Went Wrong)

A lot can change in a year.

In a day. In a month. In six months.

Surprise, chingus, tomodachis, amigos, friends, and amici. I can’t believe it’s been a year since I’ve actually written anything for my blog… And wow. What a year it has been.

First, many of you may have remembered me from Gina Bear’s Blog. Earlier this year, I decided to rebrand into Globelle Gina. The reason for this decision is that… I’d outgrown my previous brand.

I’m no longer that bright-eyed, bushy-tailed young twenty-something lost in translation somewhere in Okinawa, Japan, being like, “I like sushi?”

In fact, it’s been five years since I ended my expat journey in South Korea.

For so much of my twenties, I knew exactly who I was.

I was an English teacher.

A traveler.

A language learner.

An expat.

When I came back to the United States, that identity disappeared almost overnight.

Who was I now, and what did I want?

Table of Contents

Why Texas And I Were Never Meant To Be

The Lone Star State was where some of the worst things in my life happened to me. And you will probably find no one who hates Tex-ass more than I do.

And to be fair, I did experience and travel around Texas. I found things I liked, but not enough for me to be like. OMG! I love it here, and I’m gonna stay forever.

A car hit my father in Texas, and he nearly died. It’s where I lived during my first time with Southwest Airlines, working as a Customer Service and Support agent.

Spending eight to ten hours a day answering complaints took a toll on my mental and physical health. Between stress, inactivity, and emotional eating, I gained forty pounds and eventually developed prediabetes.

While on holiday in Mexico in 2021, I completely tore my ACL. Because I didn’t want to deal with surgery, I left my knee in that condition for three years until February 2024.

Thankfully, I found an incredible orthopedic surgeon in Austin who had trained at Rush in Chicago. My ACL recovery was a complete success, and today I can do everything I could before the injury.

Unemployment, Financial Trouble, and a Car Accident

But then in May 2024, I lost my job with Southwest. I had medical and other bills to pay. Needless to say, that contributed to a lot of debt I’m still paying off now.

I spent that time working on my blog, and eventually writing my first book, A City of Stars and Betrayal, before I finally found full-time employment training AI models.

In March 2025, another driver slammed into my car, leaving me with herniated discs in my neck, a torn rotator cuff, and nearly a year of physical therapy.

Before I left Texas, I met a guy who taught me one of the most important lessons… Love can be gentle and move at your pace.

For years, I’d associated chemistry with anxiety. That lesson has changed the way I approach relationships forever.

In July 2025, I decided to come home to Chicago. What I was hoping would be an exciting new chapter quickly turned into a nightmare.

A corporate travel company in downtown Chicago hired me at a pretty cushy salary. After their merger, the job offer was rescinded. So I took a job at Target and worked as a brand ambassador to make ends meet.

While I was on the train to work at Lollapalooza, I saw that Southwest Airlines had opened its flight attendant position. I thought… You know what? Fuck it. Let’s see what happens.

Rock Bottom Does Indeed Have a Trap Door

My living situation was even worse… I didn’t have many options because of my poor credit score, which stemmed from the instability of previous years.

I signed a lease with someone I believed wanted to be besties, but who secretly despised me.

That person turned to DV against me. I had to take out an order of protection and fled in October 2025. I’m not comfortable with going into the details, but I hope one day I’ll be able to talk about it more honestly.

I am a survivor. I’m tough as nails with that Chicago grit and tenacity no one can ever take away from me.

What matters most is that I am safe and living in peace.

But that situation caused an irreparable rift with my immediate family. We are no longer in communication, and I believe it is for the best.

I was pretty heartbroken, and all I did after work every day was cry on the bus.

Southwest FINALLY Called Me Back But Then…

I am a millennial raised by boomers. And you know what? One of the best pieces of advice my dad ever gave me was, “When shit gets hard, you tie your laces a little tighter, and pull yourself up by your bootstraps.”

Coming from someone who looked death in the face and told it to go fuck itself, I found it to be pretty solid.

Right before I left my old apartment in October, I got a video interview request from Southwest Airlines. And then there was more radio silence.

In November 2025, Target laid off thousands of employees, and I was one of them.

How Did I Survive?

So what did I do? I returned to what had always helped me survive unemployment: writing. I took to my keyboard and transmuted my pain into beauty.

A City of Stars and Betrayal is and always will be my book baby, but it deals with very difficult themes relating to trauma, domestic violence, and agency. Seeing as what I had just left, I couldn’t bring myself to write in that world.

As a writer and author, I tend to write what I need most in my life.

My newest standalone novel is set in 1925 Prohibition-era Chicago, and I plan to publish it traditionally. I spent countless hours in the library researching and imagining what life was like a hundred years ago in the city I love so much.

I cannot wait for that story to be yours one day. I’m currently in the first round of edits, and it will move on to paid beta readers later this summer.

In December 2025, Southwest invited me to Dallas for an in-person interview and hired me on the spot. In the span of a single afternoon, my life changed.

But I wasn’t over the hump yet.

Getting Hired and Fired… Again

The corporate job that rescinded the offer contacted me and asked me to come back. I made it a total of two weeks before they fired me on New Year’s Eve, citing that I was failing at training… Even though I had passed all my assessments.

Illinois is an at-will state, so it was fully within their rights to do so. Just as I had every right to file for unemployment in Texas after paying into the system while living there for four years.

Then, I had to fight unemployment in Texas and in Illinois for SNAP and Medicaid benefits. The system fails people like me all the time.

The Texas Exile And Why The Universe Has a Wicked Sense of Humor

I found it absolutely hilarious that after how hard I fought to claw my way out of Texas, I was right back there again in March 2026.

I was at headquarters in Dallas, and let me tell you… Living abroad was a cakewalk compared to flight attendant training.

Training was traumatic and incredibly strict, and I approached every day knowing one mistake could cost me my spot. I didn’t make any friends with my classmates until after training. All I did was study.

After losing my job, my stability, my sense of identity, and my home, becoming a flight attendant felt like my last opportunity. I was determined not to fail.

After I graduated and got my wings, there were still times I’d wake up in my bed in Chicago at 3:30am thinking I was late for the bus. And the emergency drills? I couldn’t forget those even if I tried.

Passengers see beverage service. Flight attendants see safety. The snacks are just a bonus.

And because the universe has a wicked sense of humor… Wanna know what my base was out of training?

Fucking Austin.

Thus started the next two months of going back and forth until I eventually just stayed put at my crash pad because commuting wasn’t it.

Apparently the life wasn’t done teaching me lessons.

Life Mode: Hard.

Dating mode: Boss Level.

I accidentally fell for a dumpster fire, train wreck Florida Man.

Definitely not on my 2026 Bingo card. Yet, here we are.

I got my transfer out to Chicago pretty quickly, and living by my base has changed my LIFE.

What This Flight Attendant Journey Taught Me

So welcome to this next chapter. There will be plenty of travel stories, flight attendant adventures, book updates, and probably a few more moments where life reminds me it has a twisted sense of humor.

Here’s what I learned from the shitshow that was my life the past five years.

Being unemployed doesn’t make you a failure.
Food stamps and unemployment are tools, not character flaws.
Losing a job doesn’t mean losing your value.
Debt is a situation, not an identity.
A paycheck can buy peace of mind.

When life knocks me down, I get right back up again. And I think you need a little bit of that mindset to get through being a flight attendant.

I didn’t give up. And because I didn’t, I made it through.

Of course, I didn’t make it through everything alone. I had my friends, who were my chosen family, and my extended family who loved me anyway.

I think in a way I was always meant to be a flight attendant. I’m good with people, I have that confidence and authority from being a teacher for over a decade, and I love to travel. It always will be a crucial part of my identity.

A year ago, I had no idea where my life was headed.

Today, I’m writing this from the jumpseat of a dream I almost convinced myself I’d lost forever.

If there’s one thing this past year taught me, it’s this: Your life can change in an afternoon.

Mine did.

And I can’t wait to see where being a flight attendant takes me next.