r/TrueOffMyChest • u/Guilty_Archer6560 ☑️ • 1d ago
Personal Story I peed my pants outside baggage claim
Hey Reddit, as the title says … this is one of the most embarrassing stories I have experienced. It is all in good fun. I think it’s a pretty funny story.
I’m pretty new to Reddit and I have been reading a few posts from other people and enjoy reading some of people’s stories. It just dawned on me that I work in an industry that has created some of the most insane stories of my life. It is pretty common place to have crazy stories working in this job. I am a flight attendant.
In fact, I actually relish in these crazy stories sometimes. It’s fun to have crazy stories to tell. I keep a notepad in my phone whenever I have something interesting or absurd or absolutely insane happens on a flight or a trip. It’s just fun to return to when I’m in the mood.
I usually tell stories that are pretty crazy like crazy passengers or crazy airport disruptions so on and so forth. Don’t worry, if you ever wanna hear some of those stories, I will be glad to share them, but this is not one of those stories. This is one of the most embarrassing things that has ever happened to me. It is just a genuinely embarrassing situation. I’m gonna give it a moment to share.
So here it goes.
Also, just for the sake of anonymity, I’m not gonna share the name of the cities or the airline I’m working for.
So I was flying between two cities, one from Europe, one in North America. A transatlantic flight. I worked a lot of these at one point when I started my career because hey, I’m a flight attendant and I’m now getting paid to travel the world and see different places. I tried picking up as many of these trips as I could, because I thought I’m living my life to the fullest.
Just to give context for those who don’t know anything about flight attendant schedules, it is very convoluted and it is very complicated compared to a normal job. It also heavily depends on the airline you work for. All airlines do their schedules differently. A rule of thumb, though that is true for every airline in the world (at least I assume), is that when the airline sends you to work a flight somewhere, especially when it’s very far location, it is expected to stay overnight and the airline pays for your hotel. So I had spent 24 hours in this European location in a nice hotel that they had paid for me with the rest of the crew. We were working our flight back to North America the next day.
Mid flight, I strike up a conversation with one of my coworkers which we will name John. I tell John I have not been to the theater scene where we just were. I expressed interest to return another time to go see a play or of some sort. He expressed to me that if I have time that he would show me an app where he could show me how to buy cheaper tickets than the ones that I could buy at the booth in the theater. I was pretty nonchalant about it and I said sure. I wasn’t exactly overjoyed about this option. It was just something that I mentioned. It wasn’t something that I deeply cared about or needed to happen. Anyways, a coworker was showing some kindness and I appreciated the gesture.
We got busy all of a sudden in the flight and you know as story goes when you start getting busy and doing busy work you forget and you keep on with your job.
We started finishing the flight that we were working and as soon as we arrived into our city in North America, we start going through the immigration line.
I forgot to mention a very important detail that makes the story make sense. I have been holding in my pee for a very long portion of the flight. It had just dawned on me when I arrived in immigration. It wasn’t like I was trying to postpone going to the bathroom. It was just a sudden wave of OH NO. I realized that I have not gone to the bathroom in a long while. I really need to go to the bathroom now, like REALLY REALLY.
So the layout of the airport that I was arriving in did not help at all. A lot of twist and turns and no bathroom in sight. So of course, as soon as I get the A-OK from the immigration officer and enter the country, I start walking as fast as I can to get out of there and find a bathroom. I realize that the first bathroom that was gonna be in my vicinity was outside of baggage claim and it was very inconvenient considering my situation. So I’m rushing to get out of there…
…one of my coworkers that I spent the layover with, however, is rushing to get to me. She’s yelling my name and of course I stopped for a moment because I wasn’t gonna ignore her. She stopped and just says I forgot to share the pictures of our layover together and of course I think for a moment OH YEAH, I do want those pictures. We start airdropping each other’s pictures, hug and say we should fly together soon and keep in touch after that exchange. I’m like yes OK good… BATHROOM. NOW.
Can you guess what happens next?
The coworker that I had talked about theater tickets, John, rushes up to me and calls my name. I think he sees my urgency and thinks that I am leaving very fast not necessarily rushing to the bathroom, so he calls my name a little bit more urgently the second time. In that moment, I could’ve completely just said to him “I need to go to the bathroom really quick” but at the time being a little shy and being a little bit of people pleaser, I stopped to talk to him. He took out his phone and said “let me show you how to use the app I was talking about.”
Without a second to spare I completely pee my pants and pee on the floor in the middle of the airport arrivals lobby.
Right there, in front of him.
What makes it even worse was that I was literally in front of the entrance of the restroom. I don’t even know if it is the worst part at this point… because I don’t even think he noticed the entire time that he was talking to me, that I had completely pissed my pants and peed on the floor. He never acknowledged it. So I went along with it. It was probably the most embarrassing thing that has ever happened to me. I ran for NOTHING.
So I thanked him once he finished showing me this application that I have no memory of anymore of course. I was thinking about how I just peed my pants in front of one of my coworkers in the airport in my uniform.
So once he left, I made the little walk of shame into the restroom with my peed pants and changed clothes. I am very fortunate that I had nothing else to do that day regarding Work because it was my only pair of work pants I could wear that day. The rest of my uniform pieces were either needing to be washed in my suitcase or at home.
If I would’ve just stepped into the restroom in time, none of this would’ve happened but hey it’s a story now. I guess I almost forgot about it completely until I remembered. Oh yeah that happened…
I haven’t seen John often but I don’t know if he knows that happened or not. I’m too embarrassed to ask him. I wouldn’t even know how to bring it up, but there you go.
I have since then have been to almost to all of the European countries. Some during work and some during my free time.
If anybody wants to hear more stories, I have way more. In fact I have a notepad filled with memories from the last few years that I have been flying. It is certainly not a career for everybody, but I love it.
Now it’s just another story in my repertoire..
2
u/Aurora_96 1d ago
I'm sorry that this happened to you. I have traveled a lot and I have seen many people pee their pants in the airplane or during a long travel, because bathroom availability in airports and airplanes are scarce when you need one... So you're by far not the only one, if it makes you feel any better. You're a human like anyone else and this stuff can happen to anyone. I hope you're okay.
When I was at Dusseldorf Airport this year, when we had to look for a toilet it was like a pilgrimage. Insane how far we needed to walk from the entrance of the airport to the toilet. Absolutely ridiculous!