Why I like flying - Roberta D'Alois

I actually don't like flying. it scares me. I obsess about all the things that could go wrong - what if this pilot finished LAST In his class? What if his wife just left him? What if the head mechanic took a day off and his replacement today isn't as familiar with the aircraft and misses something big??

And what will it be like if we DO Crash? WIll I turn to my husband and say "honey, I really only loved only you?" Or. "honey I forgot to feed the cats" and that'll be my last words on earth?

The service doesn't help. As I'm not a IK or 2K or any kind of K, I sit in the middle of the plane and they're always out of the chicken when they get to me. The flight attendants don't seem happy to see me. And they don't smile when I do - in greeting or in passing - and they never replace my broken headset even when I ask nicely.


But I like to GO places - I love arriving, seeing new cities, experiencing weather patterns I don't get to in SunnyCalifornia. I've ridden dog sleds, parasailed, ridden in a chopper over the NaPali Coast, and met people from all over the world who are still my friends today. And I' ve had the chance to comfort ill friends and family, see my newborn niece, hold my mother's hand when she was hospitalized, and take my brother to a Broadway play which he had never done.

So I put up with the sweaty palms, the vague nausea, the airplane lasagna and scratchy sounding movies. I am who I am partly because of al the places I've been and I wouldn't trade my life for anyone's. I've conquered some big-time fears and I feel proud.