Some people don’t find their dream — they find their way back to it. Al Mario Eslao Lara knows that feeling intimately. The 28-year-old Filipino is now a cabin crew member for the national airline and flag carrier of the UAE, serving passengers across continents from his base in Abu Dhabi. But not long ago, he was working 12-hour shifts six days a week for a salary of 1,500 AED — roughly $400 a month — wondering whether any of it was leading somewhere.
It was. It just took seven years, a forgotten dream, and an email he almost didn’t believe was real.
Starting from the bottom, literally
When Mario arrived in the UAE in February 2019, he had a communications background sharpened by years in the Philippine BPO industry and an unexpected confidence built through pageantry — competitions he entered not for trophies, but to cover his own expenses. “Through pageantry, I gained confidence and had the opportunity to collaborate with local government units across Mindanao,” he says. That experience in community engagement and public presentation would prove more useful than he could have imagined.
But his first year in the UAE didn’t look like any of that. He landed a receptionist role at a well-known property in Dubai, pulling 12-hour days with a single day off per week. The pay was 1,500 AED. By most measures, it was a grueling start. By his own, it was exactly what he needed. “It was physically and emotionally demanding, but it shaped my discipline and perseverance,” he says. “Those early sacrifices became the foundation of my growth.”
He is not the type to dramatize hardship. When he talks about those early days — the homesickness, the financial pressure, the sheer exhaustion — he does so without bitterness. There’s almost a clinical calm to it, the kind that comes from having processed difficulty and genuinely moved through it. His faith, he says, was the through line. His family was the anchor.
Finding his footing in healthcare
After Dubai, Mario transitioned into healthcare customer service, a sector that demanded a different kind of resilience. Here, the job wasn’t just about pleasant interactions — it was about remaining composed when situations frayed and emotions ran high. He was good at it. Good enough to be singled out at his facility’s annual recognition event, where he received the “Calmer of the Storms” award — the only person from his location to receive it that year.
“I was recognized for handling challenging situations with composure and empathy,” he says, “qualities that now serve me well in aviation.”
That connection — between staying calm under pressure and working in the skies — didn’t occur to him immediately. For a time, he had almost stopped thinking about aviation altogether. He had applied for a cabin crew position back in June 2022 and heard nothing. The silence, he admits, led him to quietly shelve the dream. Life moved on. Other goals took shape.
The email that changed everything
Then, in 2024, an email arrived. He had been shortlisted.
“From that moment, everything changed,” Mario says, “and I realized that some dreams, even when delayed, are meant to find their way back.”
It’s the kind of sentence that sounds like something from an inspirational reel — except that the two years of radio silence make it earned. He had applied in good faith, received nothing, moved forward, and then, without any orchestration on his part, an opportunity surfaced on its own timeline. His mantra — “Stay grounded, work hard, and trust God’s timing. Everything happens for a reason” — isn’t a platitude he adopted for effect. It’s a conclusion he reached after years of evidence.
Today, Mario holds what he describes as one of the greatest milestones of his life: a seat on the crew of the UAE’s flag carrier, representing both the airline and, in his view, the global Filipino community. “Our primary duty is safety,” he says. “Knowing that passengers trust us with their lives during every flight gives my work deeper meaning.”
The jump from 1,500 AED to an cabin crew uniform is not a small one — financially, professionally, or psychologically. It represents a total reorientation of what’s possible when you stay in the game long enough. Mario is clear-eyed about what got him there: not luck, not a single breakthrough moment, but an accumulation of unglamorous choices made consistently over seven years.
More than a career — a message
He is already thinking about what comes after. Smart investments, possibly a business, a return home one day — not empty-handed, but with both resources and perspective. He wants to mentor young Filipinos aspiring to aviation careers and promote financial literacy among OFWs, an advocacy he feels urgently about. “Make sure your sacrifices today are building a stable and meaningful future,” he says. “Stay disciplined, stay humble, and never forget your Filipino values — no matter where in the world you are.”
There’s no air of arrival about him. For someone who has genuinely climbed from the bottom of the ladder, Mario carries it lightly — not because the journey was easy, but because he understood from the start that ease was never the point. Seven years abroad, from receptionist to cabin crew on a global airline, from 1,500 AED to the skies above Abu Dhabi.
He didn’t just find his dream. He found his way back to it — and that, it turns out, made all the difference.
