Today, in the British Airways headquarters, I received my “Wings”. To receive one’s “Wings” means to graduate from the BA cabin crew training programme. And I had the pleasure of doing so this afternoon, alongside twelve of the kindest, funniest, and most compassionate people I have ever known.

It marks the culmination of an intense, demanding, and challenging six-week programme. From firefighting to Virgin Marys, from emergency evacuations (BRACE, BRACE!) to CPR, I have never learnt so much in such a small amount of time.

At the ceremony this afternoon, two of my colleagues (*dear friends) made impromptu speeches. They spoke very well, expressing their gratitude and excitement in a fluid, intelligent, professional and composed manner. They put words to feelings I could not have expressed, and they represented the thirteen of us to the utmost standard.

But so great was my love and gratitude in that moment, for everyone in the room, that I had to restrain myself from jumping up and just saying so.

Happily, I didn’t, but the words I would have said have been buzzing around my head since then. And when I don’t know what to do with my feelings and thoughts, trying to put words to them often helps.

The following is a brief expression of how I felt today. It is an expression, in fact, of how I have felt over the past six weeks. And it is an expression of how wonderful it is, to have colleagues you can call friends and friends you can call colleagues.

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At least four different alarms, set in 10-minute increments from 5am, on each of our personal phones, work phones, and smart watches. Reduced services on the Piccadilly Line, closures on the M25, and buses that just don’t turn up. Daily exams and assessments looming overhead.

There were many valid reasons for people to be tired, irritable, or glum. But without fail, every morning when I walked into the café in the BA Global Learning Academy, I was met with fresh, beaming faces. Faces teeming with joy, and understanding, and optimism, and stoicism.

It is, with great pleasure, that I introduce Our Team.

I don’t think it would hurt anyone to say, we were a ragtag bunch. We all found ourselves at BA through wildly differing paths. Coming from other airlines, the Met Police, returning crew, various universities, and a Pro Shop.

We found ourselves immediately united by one common goal: to get through the training programme, and to have as good a time as possible whilst we did. This wasn’t a competitive nor zero-sum goal – someone’s success didn’t mean another’s failure.

We were therefore incentivised to support and look after each other. United under this goal, we found an extraordinary sense of solidarity, and an even greater sense of humour. As challenging as it has been, I can count fewer times in my life that I have had this amount of fun.

Of course, great credit for such an enjoyable experience rests at the feet of our trainers. Deeply knowledgeable, invariably personable, always charismatic and continually supportive. Equally important, perhaps, was the atmosphere that they conjured in the classroom and airplane mock-ups. They did an exceptional job in preparing us for life in the skies.

Great credit too lies with British Airways. I will say it loud, and I will say it proud – I cannot shake the feeling, that I have found myself in the most incredible company. It is an unfashionable thing to say. It is even more unfashionable to say it sincerely, but I truly mean it.

The nightmarish images of corporate life – soulless, monotonous, empty – that I envisioned prior to joining, could not be further from reality. It is an extraordinary company, bubbling with an energy that is infectiously inspiring.

The culture, the ethos, the product we offer, and the reverence we have for our colleagues and customers. It feels like a very cool place to be. “Disneyland for Adults”, as one of my friends (*colleagues) delightfully put it.

Over the past six weeks, I have basked every day in the greatest of pleasures – the company of these twelve beautiful people.

To their Mums and Dads: thank you for having raised such compassionate, talented, and hilarious people. They are a credit to each of you, as much as they are a credit to themselves.

To their husbands, wives, boyfriends, girlfriends and children: thank you for having shared them with us throughout this period. For the respective sacrifices you have made, to keep them smiling and thriving, I am enormously grateful.

To the ever-supporting and ever-loving Miss Carter and Mr Bhojwani – you are both a delight, and my days are always lifted when you step into them.

And to the twelve of you? Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, and thank you again.

You have made the stressful a blast; the demanding a breeze. More laughs than I could count, more applause than one could measure. Whenever a challenge blew us over, we picked each other up, dusted each other down, and stood strong again with smiles on our faces.

It has been as inspiring as it has been pleasurable.

Wherever the next months and years take us, in BA and around the world, I know I will carry the experiences we have shared and the love for each of you, deep within my heart.

Maybe we will all crew a flight together someday. Maybe we will find each other in a crew hotel, on the other side of the world.

But if we don’t? Well, I would not have missed these past six weeks for the world.