The Closest Exit May Be Behind You

Why would someone choose a career that terrifies her?

The smiling girl in the cover photo harbors a dark secret. A graduate of the August 1970 Delta Air Lines rigorous training program, she is, in fact, terrified of flying. A traumatic flight from Key West, Florida, to Havana, Cuba, at age eight convinced her she would never take to the sky again. But her recently earned BA in psychology left little in the way of a career path without an advanced degree. She is broke and desperate to find a job.

A friend convinces her to apply to be a stewardess, one of a few good-paying jobs available to women. Laughing at the suggestion, and not believing she can convince anyone she belongs on an airplane, she is simultaneously excited and appalled when she gets the job. At age twenty-one, she has, thus far, lived a sheltered life and is unprepared to feel like a fraud in a stewardess uniform.

Gradually she meets the challenges that confront her:

• • Quirky passengers and coworkers
  • Meal services that don't go as planned
  • Health emergencies
  • Surviving a toxic first marriage, complete with harrowing experiences on a sailboat
  • The loss of the man she chooses as a life partner

  Her breezy, easy-to-read writing style (reminiscent of Kelly Bishop's The Third Gilmore Girl), is filled with tales ranging from the absurd to the tragic, from memorable vacations to humorous anecdotes no one could make up.

  This book offers encouragement to anyone who has faced fear and adversity. And isn't that all of us?