Indeed.
And you shouldn't make, or regret a career decision based on a single winter of low pay, after everything you've gone through to get to this stage.
You will be better off from now on, and no more worrying about how you're going to get to Estonia for an early start on Monday.
As for being cheered up by your oppo, it always seemed to me that the only positive note was that he/she usually had a horror story that trumped mine.
Also remember the no pay at all till the line training started, and 20 sectors? Remind me how many you had to do at FR...
And edit: to make sense of any of that it's a reply to 10checks, not captplaystation.