Betty Kilonzo: Meet 25-Year-Old Lady Who Scaled From Construction Worker To Flight Attendant

• Those who knew Betty Kilonzo two years ago remember her found herself as a construction worker who earned minimum wage fixing floor tiles
• The 25-year-old single mother, however, managed to pull herself out of the doldrums to become a flight attendant with a regional airline
• Given her remarkable journey, Betty encourages those with unfulfilled dreams to persist, as things always tend to fall into place when one pushes themselves

Betty Kilonzo's work days involve flying around the region as a flight attendant in one of the local airlines, looking glamorous and classy.

However, that is just the second phase of her story that many people have come to know in the recent past.

Started from the bottom

What most have no idea is that the 25-year-old started out as a construction worker whose job was to help contractors lay tiles.

She then became a sales girl for a fabric softener before a friend shared about the vacancy for flight attendants and she applied for it.

According to her, being a flight attendant was more of a fantasy than a dream which felt too high to achieve.

"It's like if you dreamt of being the president of Kenya. You may have the potential but it still seems too high a dream to achieve, right? That was it for me," she noted.

Wanted to be a writer

Betty discloses that before the airline job came calling, she had settled on becoming a writer as that seemed attainable.

That explains her excitement when she received news that she had been selected for her dream job, something that she attributes to God's plans.

Having been in the skies for nearly a year now, Betty posits that she feel she was born to be a flight attendant because being in uniform brings out her true form in body and spirit.

"Being a flight attendant has been the most fulfilling venture I've ever undertaken. I love being needed and having the responsibility to cater for another person's needs," she said.

Memorable moments

The job has come with a host of moments, some heartbreaking, others inspiring, but each holds a special place in her heart.

One of them, she reveals, was during a flight to Kakuma when a little girl of around seven years approached and told her she looked so beautiful.

"She then confessed that she wanted to become just like me when she grew up. She asked for a selfie. My tears welled up. I pray in my heart that she looks at that selfie and it reminds her to never give up," she underpinned.

Another time, they were picking up refugees from South Sudan when one of the kids scuttled into the flight barefoot but carrying a guitar.

Betty says she imagined what it meant for the youngster to run away with just a guitar in a whole carnage and almost cried.

Ups and downs

The flight crew added that the biggest challenge to being an attendant is the fact that one's image matters to the core.

"It's both a good and bad thing. I have seen people cut me off because they believe I am in a position to connect them to aviation jobs yet I am not doing so deliberately," she lamented.

Others, Betty continues, dislike her for not giving them money because they believe she earns millions.

Her job has also made it difficult to find an understanding suitor because some men feel intimidated by her job.

Valuable lessons

The mother of one discloses she has had to make major adjustments in her house to accommodate her schedule while still finding balance between work and home.

Apart from that, the greatest lesson she has picked as a cabin crew is respect and communication as those two are paramount in aviation.

"You have to be briefed and to debrief. It has made me a very accountable person. I like to make myself understood. I leave no room for assumptions," she continued.

Having learned that bit, Betty believes most relationships die because of assumptions, otherwise humans would have more wholesome relationships if we all learnt to communicate better.

Betty still writes

That the young mother spends most of her time balancing between the skies and her beautiful daughter has not ebbed away at her love for writing.

As a matter of fact, she has co-authored a poetry book with Scolar Moraa christened This Heart of Mine, and she has more up her sleeves.

For those looking to join the airline industry, she advises them to go ahead and apply as fate has its own way of doing things.

"Never disqualify yourself. Apply and let them disqualify you," she concluded.

Purity Kimani's story of beating the odds

Elsewhere, Purity Kimani managed to rise up from a failed marriage and working as a Mama Fua to become a respected barista in Qatar.

It all began when her parents split up, after which she found herself struggling to make ends in the sprawling slums of Kayole.

Money was tight, her marriage had collapsed, and life's struggles had pushed her into becoming an alcoholic.

To change her course, Purity moved to the Middle East in search of greener pastures and was taken in by how much Kenyan coffee is respected abroad.

Having grown up in Murang'a and seen its production firsthand, she dove into the world of coffee and rose through the ranks to become a revered barista.