It’s been a while since I blogged – so busy with the hustle and bustle of everyday life, it just seemed to slip away. But that ends today. I have a fun story to share!
Yesterday, Christmas day, I was flying home from vacation so that I could get to work today. Since I was flying, that meant airline staff had to work in order for me to get home successfully. Therefore, I wanted to do something nice for the wonderful staff that sacrificed Christmas for me. Before heading to the airport I bought some Christmas cards and wrote notes for the flight crew (later I realized just how many people I forgot and how many more people work behind the scenes – like baggage and traffic controllers that I couldn’t reach with my cards). It only took a few minutes but what happened next repaid me 10 fold.
As I boarded the plane, I asked the first flight attendant I saw how many crew were on board. She replied six, so I handed her six cards in envelopes. Her eyes lit up and her smile widened. She said, “thank you and merry Christmas.”
I made my way back to my seat and couldn’t help but smile. Once I got settled in my seat, two flight attendants came up and thanked me for the card and again, I couldn’t help but smile and simply say “you’re welcome.” I thought that was the end of it and pulled out my book to begin reading with joy filled in my heart.
That wasn’t it.
Soon another flight attendant came down the aisle and asked if I was the one who gave her a card. I said yes and then she said that I had been upgraded to first class for free.
I was in shock. All I had done was take a couple of minutes to write Merry Christmas. I replied, “are you sure?” and she said yes and took my bag from under the seat to show me to my new seat. I have never flown first class before and it was wonderful.
I received free drinks, free nuts, free lunch (which was much better than I thought it would be!) and a free chocolate chip cookie. The attendants and crew on my American Airlines flight were so positive and told me how uplifting it was to receive a card from a passenger.
I don’t mean to brag about my deeds, but really to remind people that a little good goes a long way and what you sow is what you will reap. You have the opportunity to lift someone up and to be the light in the world.
It was truly a joy just to give the cards, but to receive ten times what I did was such an unexpected blessing.
Julie Smith 