Young & The Restless Star Kate Linder Shares Why She Still Works As Flight Attendant After 42 Years on Soap

In an interview with Us Weekly, the 77-year-old actress -- who has starred as Esther Valentine on the CBS soap opera for over four decades -- opened up about why she has kept her part-time job as a flight attendant despite her successful career as an actress.

"It's really interesting because one day I get to be on the set, the next day I get to be here doing this Hollywood Christmas parade, and then I get to serve coffee at 35,000 feet," Linder said. "You don't forget who you are that way. It keeps you grounded."

Linder -- who first joined The Young and the Restless in 1982 -- reflected on the long-running soap's recent milestone.

"We just aired our 13,000th episode, and I was so honored to be part of that," she said. "It's over 42 years and counting for me. I'm just absolutely thrilled."

And while working as a flight attendant for United Airlines, Linder revealed that passengers sometimes recognize her, and recalled a story of a time she was approached by a fan.

"I was standing at the gate ready to get on a plane, and this woman looked at me and she said, 'Kate Linder? No, you're not," Linder shared. "And I said, 'I was when I woke up. So something's wrong. I don't know what’s wrong.' She couldn't believe that I was going to be working that flight. And she ended up being on that flight."

Ultimately, Linder said she feels "lucky" to be able to live out her dreams.

"I've seen a lot of people that sometimes believe their own press," she said. "I feel so very fortunate to do what I do. This is all I've ever wanted to do. No one in my family was in the business, so it was always like taking one step forward and two steps back, and yet, how fortunate and how lucky am I?"

During an interview with PEOPLE earlier this year, Linder called the experience of working two jobs "crazy" and "amazing."

"When I first started, I became a flight attendant because I needed a job that would give me enough time off so I could pursue my career. And then I was hired. I was only hired for one day, so I kept going," she recalled when she first joined The Young and the Restless. "And then I thought, 'Well, if I can keep doing them both, well then I'll do them both.'"

Linder shared that her preferred routes are "Denver turns, San Francisco turns, even Hawaii turns so that if I have something that night, I can still make it and still do it."