Got the call, then got scared: the week after the offer when I nearly withdrew, and what the crew here said that kept me
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#1 Called on day 41, wrote it in the timeline thread, and then something happened that nobody talks about: three days after the offer I very nearly withdrew. This is that week, because I think it happens to more people than say so.
What happened
The call, the joy, the email, the portal. Then the family conversation, which went well. Then the night I sat with the offer letter and read the probation clause and the accommodation rules and the distance from Lahore and thought: what am I doing. I am 27, I have a job, my parents are here, and I am about to move to a country I have visited twice to live in a building with a curfew.
The week
Day one: elation. Day three: the doubt. Day four: I drafted the withdrawal email. Day five: I did not send it and I posted a version of this in a DM to two crew on this forum instead. Day six: their replies. Day seven: I uploaded the documents.
What they said
One said: the doubt is the size of the decision, not a sign about the decision. Everyone she knew had had the week. The ones who withdrew in it regretted it. The ones who went through it were fine by month two.
The other said: read the probation clause again and notice that it protects you as much as them, that the accommodation rules relax, and that Lahore is a direct flight. Then she said the thing that kept me: you can always come home. The job is not a prison. The only version you cannot undo is the one where you never went.
What I know now
The week is normal. The doubt is proportionate. The withdrawal email is drafted by most people and sent by few. And the crew on this forum are the reason I did not send mine.
If you have just been called and are sitting with the letter at 2am: the week is normal. Post here instead of sending the email.
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#2 I was one of the two, and I said what Hassan quoted, and I will say it again for whoever is reading at 2am: the doubt is the size of the decision. Everyone had the week. The ones who went are fine. Upload the documents.
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#3 I had the week. Day four for me too, almost to the day. I did not draft the email but I looked at the flights home. Five weeks from Doha now and the doubt has become excitement. It is a phase and it has a shape.
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#4 American, and my week was about the accommodation rules at 28, and the sentence that kept me was a colleague saying 'it is a two year dorm, not a life sentence'. Four years later, I stayed. The week lies.
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#6 Candidate, rejected, reapplying, and reading this from the other side: I would give a lot to have that week. Which is, I think, the thing to remember while you are in it.
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#7 Ex crew, eight years, and I had the week and went and left after eight years by choice, and the crew member who told Hassan 'you can always come home' is right, and I am the proof that coming home after a career is a fine ending. The only bad version is not going.