Trinity Hobbs, a 24-year-old flight attendant from Gary, remembers the excitement she felt when she got her conditional job offer from American Airlines.
“I feel very accomplished, because now I have an actual career where I get to enjoy life and get to help others enjoy life as well. So I’m very blessed. I feel blessed and accomplished”
After a rigorous interview process, she was finally chosen out of thousands of applicants into the company’s training class at American Airlines headquarters in Fort Worth, Texas. This was it: her first-class ticket toward a life full of free flights, foreign lands, and adventures around the world.
After applying twice, the third time was the charm — but she said she would’ve applied a dozen more times, as many as it took to get accepted. Her perseverance, she said, was driven from a prophecy.
“I knew that this was going to be my career for the rest of my life because it was prophesied to me,” Hobbs said. “I was doing it to fulfill God’s plan for me because there’s a reason why he chose me to do that. I can’t give up on something that I know is for me.”
Hobbs grew up in church, attending True Light International Ministries in Griffith. She struggled with her self-confidence and mental health after being bullied for her physical features growing up. That insecurity lingered, she said, and left her confused about her direction in life — until one day, she changed course. During a life-changing talk, her pastor, Scott Jefferson III, told her that she was meant for a life in the skies as a flight attendant.
From then on, where her haters saw flaws, she saw flight. She spent a year applying to flight attendant schools with dozens of airlines, including Hawaiian, United, Delta, and Spirit, until she finally landed an acceptance with her dream company — American Airlines.
During her training, Hobbs was taught the customer motto: “You are why we fly.”
However, her reason for pursuing flight school was to share her light and positivity with people around the world.
“I’m a strong woman,” she said. “I went through a lot. I grew up being bullied. There’s a number of things that can make someone’s life very hard. I know that I am able to use my strength to encourage others from different areas. So I want to spread love, and the best way to do that is to spread love across the world.”
Looking back, Hobbs said she was always meant for a life in the skies. From her first plane ride in her mother’s belly, to her 5-foot-10-inch reach-ready height, and her love of high altitudes, all the pieces had fallen into place. Moreover, Hobbs said that following her faith had guided her to becoming a flight attendant, and she credits the values she learned in Gary for the skills she uses to thrive in her career today, from developing her warm yet assertive personality to her ability to connect with strangers.
“Personally, my neighborhood has always shown me that when you come in contact with someone, even if they’re not nice … just show you care,” she said. “Be there for them. Invite them to a cookout, invite them to your house, invite them to church. That’s what I got from here.”
Hobbs said she looks forward to bringing more positive representation about her beloved hometown to the rest of the world and carrying her roots with her everywhere she goes.
“I understand people think of Gary as, like, oh, it’s the ’hood, it’s the streets or whatever,” she said, “or think of it as the hometown of Michael Jackson, but there is more to it.”
Recounting some of her favorite memories in her hometown, she sighed with a smile. The neighborhood cookouts where no one leaves a stranger, tasty home-cooked meals, finding community with her church, and spending time with her cousins, aunties, and her mom — her biggest supporter.
“Gary’s nice to go home to,” Hobbs said. “I don’t care where I go in this whole entire world, I’m always going to want to be able to go back home to Gary, because that’s my home. The people there and my experiences there prepared me for aviation.”
Growing up in Gary taught Hobbs how to be authentic, and stand up for herself, she added, because the area let her “be my own Black self” that she couldn’t be in other areas in Indiana.
“When I came to Texas for training, I let everybody know I’m from Gary,” she said. “And you know, Gary specifically, is predominantly Black. It impacts my humor, my personality, and my strength that comes from God.”
She needed that strength for her upcoming class training. While she finally had an offer on the table, the work had just begun.
“Just because you got the job offer, doesn’t mean you got the job,” she said. “You really don’t know until you get your wings.”
Hobbs said her training included emergency drills in cold pools, flight simulations, weekly assessments and evaluations on aviation safety, aircraft and regulations, customer service skills, and a detailed grooming process. This required her to learn the multiple aspects of the job to the fullest capacities of her mental, physical — and emotional strength.
“Everything is extreme from the time you get there,” Hobbs said.
Being away from her home, Hobbs said she initially struggled, but found community and friendship among her peers on the campus. She found her closest friend, Tirzah Harris, another trainee, who supported her throughout their journey.
After a six-week whirlwind, it was Harris who finally pinned her wings at graduation in May.
“It was extremely emotional,” Hobbs said, adding that her classmates, like family now, cried tears of joy for each other.
“It’s a huge deal because throughout training, you keep telling yourself, I can get my wings. I get my wings. You really have to make sure you make it all the way.”
As a graduate, she joins a growing presence of Black women breaking the ground in aviation’s majority-white field. Women hold the majority of flight attendant jobs, making up 77% of the workforce. Overall, 69% of flight attendants are white and 22% are Black, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
After graduating, Hobbs said she is excited to go wherever work takes her. Now, based in Charlotte, North Carolina, she says she is looking forward to taking her mom to their dream destinations and building a future that will support her and her family.
“When my uncle was living in Vietnam … I promised myself I would come back there,” she said. “I said, ‘Mom, next time we go to Vietnam, I’m gonna pay for everything. I promise you, I’m gonna make sure I’m successful.’”
Growing up being mocked for her looks, people discouraged Hobbs from her dreams, saying that she didn’t have what it took to make it. Now, she stays runway-ready in tailored uniforms – pressed, poised, and skybound.
“My goal is to encourage people not to let anybody tell you what you can and cannot be,” Hobbs said.
“That’s why God took someone who was as broken as me, strengthened me, and then brought me to aviation,” she said.
“To encourage them and be an example of why it’s important to recognize your beauty and so you can do whatever you want. You really can be whoever you want to be when you grow up. You really can. If it’s in you, it’s in you.”