And I still wanted to become a Flight Attendant

So as high school went on, and in Austria high school is a little bit different, as I chose an 8 year high education track which ultimately would get me where I wanted to be, flying and discovering the world. Just to explain a little bit more, during my 8 years education, which is the requirement to study at university afterwards, I chose the humanistic track. And guess what, surprise surprise, I even graduated in Latin! I thoroughly enjoyed those studies about ancient Roman and Greek Culture, and the translations. And little did I know by then, it will be one of the only subjects from school which was valuable to me in my career. Not only made it my life easier to study French and graduate with the highest note, it also helped me in my current role to study Spanish! All the rest, well I guess they just had to be taught. I enjoyed high school, though it was a little tough as I had to hold back my real personality and pretend to be someone who I was not. However, that is for another blog. But I did have a girlfriend and I absolutely did love her to the moon and back and would not want to miss that experience at all, I just wanted to be clear. But my mind was set on other things and the higher education I know would help me to get there, to travel the world as a flight attendant and make my own experiences.

So not wanting to make this a too long blog about high school, but I did make everyone proud. Similar to the US we also have prom night but we have it with parents invited, with course meal dinners and dances. I remember that night super well, as my mum, love her so much, featured on this picture, was super sick that day but still took all her energy together to come to the ball. My mum in general is my role model, and there is no situation in my life where I do not know anymore where to go, where I do consult her and think how she would do it, as she is like me, always wanting to travel and being abroad at an early age. Though once she met my Dad, she stopped that and focused on me and my sister. But I did her proud, and I am grateful to having had that moment with her having my dance that night.

As you can imagine like Sound of Music, anything we do in Austria is super traditional, so you can see girls in beautiful dresses and guys in black suits with gloves. It was a fun night, and definitely showed us, the students, the 8 years of hard studying was absolutely worth it.

Had I known then I would end up in the US, I would have laughed at everyone’s face. For midnight we all dressed up and danced like cowboys and cowgirls. What a fun night.

Those nights usually happen before graduation at the end of the second last semester. And boy, the last semester was tough. Different to my sister who was studying all the time when se went through her education, I preferred to go out, party, enjoy Commodore 64 games (the equivalent to PlayStation now(, and study last minute, preferably on the 20 minute bus ride from my village to the town where the school was.

But I did make it, I graduated with best marks in my favorite subjects English, French and Latin, Mathematics let’s not mention it but I did pass, and my dissertation in French was about the Front National and in English about the Apartheid in South Africa, and were super well received. Overall, I enjoyed my time at high school, but I knew there is more out there and I could not wait to explore the world.

As one of the requirements to become a flight attendant at that time was to study hospitality management, I signed up to one of the highest and most prestigious hotel universities, to the shock of my parents but they supported me. And I, together with 7 others of my class were accepted int he approval process. But before starting to study hospitality, we all together embarked on a well deserved 2 week Maturareise, as we call it in Austria, a vacation where the entire class travels to an island and lets loose. We went to Rhosed, and similartot my girlfriend story, that is for another time or another blog. What happened in Rhodes stays in Rhodes.But my life was about to kick off after Rhodes!!