Seventeen-year-old Andrew is used to getting what he wants and treating people badly when he doesn’t get it, but his father decides it’s time Andrew learned a lesson about respect when he mistreats a flight attendant.
“Do you think he’ll be okay?”
Steven had been watching his seventeen-year-old son walk toward the airport boarding gate, but now he looked down at his wife.
“Of course Andrew will be okay,” he replied.
“I hope this new school can help him learn some humility.”
“But what if they treat him badly in the dorms?” Steven’s wife looked up at him. “He’s never been to boarding school before.”
“That’s the point.” Steven clenched his jaw. “Andrew has become spoiled and he needs to learn some tough lessons about life.”
Months later, Andrew was flying home for the holidays after his first semester of boarding school. He’d hated every minute of his time there and was eager to return to his high-powered computer and the luxury car he got for his sixteenth birthday.
“Hey, you.” Andrew waved to the flight attendant, a redhead woman with freckles.
“How can I help you, sir?” The flight attendant smiled at him.
“You can get me something better to snack on than these peanuts.” Andrew threw the bag of peanuts at her.
The flight attendant’s smile turned into a frown. “Sir, please don’t throw things at me.”
“I’ll do what I like,” Andrew replied. “You’re here to serve me, so stop complaining and do your job.”
“Don’t talk to her like that.” The older man in the seat beside Andrew turned to look at him.
“Just because it’s her job to serve us doesn’t mean you can disrespect her.”
Andrew rolled his eyes and snapped his fingers at the flight attendant. “I’m still waiting for my snack.”
The flight attendant walked away with her eyes downcast. The older man in the next seat shook his head.
“Your parents must be so disappointed in you,” the elderly man muttered.
“Nobody asked you, old man.” Andrew began scrolling through the movie options.
After a few minutes, the flight attendant returned with a pretzel.
“Here you go, sir,” she said and held out the pretzel to him. “If there’s anything else —”
Andrew sneered and slapped the pretzel out of her hand. “I don’t want a pretzel!”
The flight attendant recoiled, tears forming in her eyes. “Peanuts and pretzels are the only snacks we serve on this flight.”
“That’s pathetic, just like you.” Andrew leaned forward in his seat. “Go and fetch me a proper snack, now!”
“How dare you talk to her like that?” A woman rose from her seat across the aisle and put a hand on the flight attendant’s arm.
“If she did her job then I wouldn’t have to.” Andrew pointed at the flight attendant.
“She’s a servant, and a bad one too.”
The flight attendant burst into tears. The woman passenger tried to comfort her.
“Somebody ought to give you a hiding, young man.” The elderly passenger in the seat next to Andrew scowled at him.
“I agree.” Somebody placed a hand on his shoulder.
At that moment, Andrew understood what his father had been trying to teach him.
Andrew recognized that voice. He turned and stared in surprise when he saw his dad behind him. His face was red with anger.
“Dad, what are you doing here?” Andrew asked.
“Flying home from a business trip,” Steven replied. “I hoped we might meet on the plane, but I never imagined it would be like this. Apologize to this young lady and the other passengers immediately.”
Andrew hunched his shoulders and mumbled an apology. He didn’t see what the big deal was, but he knew better than to disobey his father when he was so angry.
When Andrew and his father got home, Steven marched him straight to his office on the second floor of the luxurious house.
“This comes to an end right now.”
Steven shut the door and turned to point at Andrew. “Your behavior is disgusting. I hoped that you might learn manners in boarding school, but it seems I was wrong.”
“Why are you making such a big deal out of this?” Andrew threw out his arms. “She’s just a flight attendant. It’s not like she’s important.”
“And that’s your problem, Andrew. You think you’re better than others because you were born into a wealthy family, and that you can treat others badly because of that.” Steven crossed his arms. “That’s going to change.”
“What does that mean?”
“You won’t be going back to that school. You’ll finish your education at a public school, and you’re going to spend your holiday working.”
“Working?” Andrew straightened up. “Are you giving me a job at your company?”
Steven smiled. “You could say that. I’m going to give you a job in my cleaning company, as a janitor.”
Andrew was horrified.
“I won’t do it!”
“You will because I’m also cutting off all your privileges. I’m taking your bank cards, your computer, your car, and your cell phone. I’m even taking your branded clothes.” Steven put his hands on his hips. “You’re going to find out what it means to respect people.”
Andrew had no choice. His father took his possessions from him, and he started his job as an airport janitor the next day.
Andrew knew nothing about cleaning. The older woman he was assigned to work with laughed at him for not knowing how to sweep or mop. He shouted at her for laughing at him and threatened to get her fired.
“No, you won’t,” she replied, shaking her finger at him. “Your father warned me about you, now get to work. These floors don’t clean themselves.”
Andrew sighed and started sweeping. He was clumsy, and his supervisor teased him about it. Andrew got angry, but there was nothing he could do about it.
He was cleaning the trash cans when something hit him. He turned and saw that somebody had thrown an empty takeaway carton at him.
“Hey!” Andrew shouted at the man who’d thrown the carton. “How dare you throw that at me.”
The man ignored Andrew, so he ran after him and grabbed his arm.
“I’m talking to you,” Andrew said.
The man shook Andrew off so hard that he fell to the ground. “Get your filthy hands off me, you dirty janitor.”
Andrew watched the man walk away in shock. Was this how it felt to be treated like you didn’t matter? Andrew didn’t like it. He looked around just as somebody kicked him.
“Get out of the way, you lazy bum.” The woman who’d kicked him sneered at him.
“I’m going to report you for sleeping on the job.”
At that moment, Andrew understood what his father had been trying to teach him. He knew now how much it hurt to be mistreated by people who thought they were better than you.
A flash of red caught his eye, and Andrew looked up. He recognized the flight attendant he’d been rude to and hurried across to her.
“I’m so sorry,” he said when he reached her. “I treated you so badly.”
The woman was surprised to see him, but she smiled when he apologized.
“I’m glad you’ve learned the error of your ways,” she said.
What can we learn from this story?
Everyone deserves respect. It doesn’t matter if somebody works a menial job; they’re still a person and deserve to be treated respectfully.
Sometimes children need to learn a lesson the hard way. It can be difficult for children to understand the true depth of important life lessons when they’ve never experienced that situation.
Share this story with your friends. It might brighten their day and inspire them.
Bo Derek is 66 now
Actress Bo Derek captivated audiences with her extraordinary beauty from the moment they first laid eyes on her. This stunning woman, who is probably best known for her part in the movie 10 that her husband directed, still has the same endearing appearance.
Bo recognized early on that acting was her vocation. Her mother, who worked for the Swedish-American actress Ann-Margeret, helped her land her first movie job when she was barely 16 years old. Bo initially met the actor and director John Derek while they were both working on the film Once Once a Love.
Bo was then 17 years old, and John, who was 30 years older than her, was married to the actress Linda Evans. John made the decision to get a divorce in order to be with Bo.
Bo, now 64, talks about her teenage affair and how she still regrets destroying Evans’ marriage to John.
“I was at least partially to blame for some severe suffering Linda Evans endured. She had shown a lot of kindness and grace. Funny enough, I just saw her yesterday. We were at a charity jewelry trunk exhibition.
She continued to be amazing and fabulous. When I’m around her, I always feel terrible. Years later, it’s just been engrained,” Bo stated to Interview Magazine in 2016.
Before getting married in Las Vegas in 1976, Bo and John dated for two years, spending the majority of that time in Mexico and Europe so that John could escape being detained for dating a minor.
Her blonde cornrow braids, which were a distinguishing aspect of Bo’s earlier appearances, have somehow managed to stick in people’s minds as the thing that makes her memorable. She explained that getting that hairstyle was her husband’s suggestion, and she didn’t realize how much they would mean to her.
“I’m blond, it was the latter decade of the 1970s, and everything was fluffy,” What will you change about your appearance? John, who is a talented photographer, had always believed that would be a wonderful look for me.
And so we did. Then he suggested that they present Blake with these images to see if he would be interested. She told Interview Magazine, “That would be incredibly excellent for the part, so you don’t appear ordinary.
Bo had a variety of roles over the years, notably in John’s films, such as Tarzan, The Ape Man (1981), Bolero (1984), and Ghosts Can’t Do It (1990), as well as the television shows 7th Heaven, Lucky, and Queen of Swords.
At the age of 71, John Derek passed away in 1998. Bo had no intention of getting married again, but she began dating 60-year-old actor John Corbett. “We make each other laugh and enjoy each other’s company.
Bo once stated, “We still hold hands after 15 years, and we still have barbecues with friends once or twice a week. They made the decision to get married in 2020.
Horses, who play a significant role in Bo’s life, have become her obsession. Riding Lessons: All That Matters in Life I Learned from Horses is the title of an autobiography she also penned.
She became an animal activist who advocates for the rights of animals because she cares about them. She devotes a lot of her time to missions that demand an end to the slaughter of horses.
Bo is still one of the most attractive actresses now and leads a happy life in California.
Leave a Reply