Why is Chad hanging around a GA airport watching someone work on something he might well never afford? If he took the semi-cynical advice you offered to treat the job as a necessary evil and that a “life” should be about segregating yourself from that evil, he’d be home in the garage building a silverware drawer for his wife. Little airplanes would be a remotely interesting mix of oddity and annoyance.
But he’s not. He’s a bit of airport bum like most of us who secretly admit to themselves that flying for a living is a truly unique blessing of being paid to do what you love and, if you’re honest, who you are.
I’ve gotten the furlough letter and the downgrade to FO and it’s a gut punch a guy takes but his buddies will listen sympathetically about the pain.
If you reject the sweet temptation to become bitter, though, you’ll probably run outside and look up if you hear a Twin Beech fly over.