​If you’ve ever been on a safari, watch Animal Planet or your curiosity about animal behavior drives TikTok’s or Instagram’s algorithms to serve you videos of predators hunting the most “organic” of prey in the wild, you may have seen the difference in how lions and tigers find and dine on their meals.
 
If you do none of the above, just know that lions hunt in packs and they don’t mind sharing the spoils of their victory with their brethren. Tigers hunt alone and they are not prone to passing the plate to anyone, not even another tiger.
 
So lions must be great teammates and tigers must be selfish, right? Not so fast.

Most people don’t like rules because they mean someone is telling them what to do. Rules generally have a negative connotation because they are limiting.

Then there are standards. Standards can seem like platitudes. They are aspirational but at times seem unrealistic, bereft of expectations that seem achievable. They are often part of mission statements in a grand vision or plan, shouted to the sky to begin and then forgotten in execution. Standards are hard to live up to and maintain.

Figuring Christmas night would an easier night to travel rather than fight the masses the day after, and appreciating paying less than half the cost, I booked Southwest Airlines flights from Greenville, South Carolina through Atlanta back home to Kansas City. You probably can guess the travel hell I had entered...but lucky for so many of us who dared to fly that night, there were also angels in that hell.

​My flight got delayed two hours in Greenville, but the gate agent there said our connecting flight in Atlanta was also delayed so they would likely hold it for the 11 people connecting to Kansas City. Upon landing in Atlanta, we rushed to the connecting gate only to find out that our flight went from “delayed” to “cancelled.” And from the looks of lines about 40 deep at each gate of Terminal C in Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, the world’s busiest, so had nearly every other Southwest flight.

The biggest opportunities always seem larger than life. A college application to your No. 1 choice. The bar exam. The perfect job. A health scare. A championship game. The outcome elicits visceral joy or profound heartbreak. Nothing much in between. You win or lose.
​
But it doesn’t have to be so black and white. At least beyond the moment.

I have a friend who has been a flight attendant her entire career. She has traveled the world for American Airlines and I can see considers it much more than a job. Rather than just make a living, she lives life. And always in a perpetual state of curiosity. I can see her passion for experiencing different cultures, histories and people. She certainly amplifies the saying “Do something you love and you’ll never work a day in your life.”

The best part is she shares her travels with all of her friends and family by posting photos and videos, and even more importantly, describing the experiences, interactions with and observations of the people of each culture.

Her curiosity allows her to learn and experience, but also share what she observes and absorbs with many who may not have ever been or ever be within close proximity of the many people with whom she crosses paths.