Hey Maximum,
Fair point about us wannabes not really knowing the true nature of commercial piloting. However, do you know the true nature of working in an office for 15 years? The pointless grind, the politics, the need to spend a few extra hours in the office each day just to keep up appearances even though you can do your job within 6 of the normal 8 hours a day, the motivational speeches (giving and receiving). People saying things like "let's network", "let's out-source personnel", "let's sing of the same hym sheet", "we need synergy people!" every weekly management meeting is just too much.
There comes a time when anything, just about anything is better. Irregular hours? Working away from different bases? Having to be competant? Sounds like bliss to me! A job with pressure where the pressure is real and not generated by the need to get the invoice in by the end of the third quarter because the previous quarter's figures were bad.
I hope I don't come across as flipant, I just wanna say the 'normal' careers suck ten times more than the magnitude of the difficulties as you have described
