me, several months ago: "You know you've made it when someone else is paying you to be travelling on a plane."
someone else speaking to me last Thursday: "Welcome to your flight courier training session." I guess it pays to refuse to give up.
long version: I have long since wanted to work in aviation, in some way. Having sent in my application for pilot training with LH at possibly the worst point in recent aviation history, I got rejected. In retrospect, I think it would have been much more boring than my starry-eyed younger self used to think. Fast forward several years and I was back applying for two rather mundane full-time entry-level jobs. No luck with that either - probably for the better, too.
After that, I noticed an LH subsidiary's call for applications for flight couriers, a part-time job that can be combined with studying. Thinking to myself "can't lose anything if I try" I sent in my application and heard nothing for months. Then I got a call asking me whether I was still interested - I was indeed - and if I could come round in the near future for a first interview. Sure, let's make that next week. I jumped through all the remaining hoops and voil?, they are willing to entrust me with nothing less than transports of life-saving medical goods. If I don't mess up the trial run, that is.