Plane rides: Can either be the best or the worst, agree?
I consider riding planes a privilege because for most common people, it is seldom to be experienced. Though I honestly only enjoy plane trips when the travel time is long due to that media screens are available for multi-purpose entertainment: I enjoy advanced screening of specific movies because not all movies are released in each countries on the same dates: I can enjoy the music of other countries especially on what airline you are riding in (If it is Korean airlines, Korean music like K-Pop songs are available, If it is Philippines airlines, Filipino musics such as "OPM" or Original Pinoy songs are there: You can as well watch dramas, cartoons, other views from the planes perspective and many more other things..) Not to forget the plane food! : )I am fond of watching some National Geographic Channel series of aircraft investigations in the thought of what if it might happen to me one time, what should I do then? How do I react? or Can I do anything about it? Knowing that there are more chances of being hit by a lightning than experience a plane crash, this issue still bugs me because thinking of the situation that there is still a chance for it to happen is present. Especially that your movements are limited because you are so high up in the air and the situation is very very uncommon.
Not that I think of this every time I ride a plane but because I have experienced already an ultra nervous and heart-stopping moment once. And the story started like this..
Just as I finished college and had my first week in work, our plan to go to the United States has pushed through to attend our cousin's wedding in Los Angeles. So I asked permission to my immediate supervisor about it but only granted a week time leave for it (half of what we have planned for the trip). But there is a catch to it, I am forced to select between two options: One is to go there with my whole family on the first week but will miss the wedding and go back to the Philippines alone or go there alone starting the second week, attend the wedding and go back here with them. to cut the story short, I selected option 2 which was to go there alone starting the second week and of course to catch the wedding.
And so they went ahead and I was left here alone for a week..(moving forward) And so my time to go there arrived and rode my plane. Everything moved smoothly and worked well until I arrived on my seat. I was kind of eager to see who will be my seatmates then since it is my first time to go on a plane ride all by myself and to think that the travel time will last for like more than half a day time. And so my seatmates came, they were a matured couple. The man was obviously confident and was used to on riding planes because on the latter part of the trip, his feet was lifted as high as the other passengers while her partner was holding a rosary praying and left very quiet the whole trip. The position was the man was sitting beside the walkway, her partner was in the middle of us and I was on the window seat.
Continuing on with the ride, we were experiencing quite a lot but mostly minor turbulence which makes the matured women sitting beside me very nervous in our situation. A little shake of the plane and I already hear her making little noises of panic. But if you look at everybody else, all were just chillin' around like they were sitting in a park. So when the snacks were started to be served I offered her my cup of water to make her more at ease at least for quite a time.
But suddenly we are again experiencing some turbulence but this time a lot shakier ones. It happened while the meals were distributed so what I thought of is that until they are serving the food and the flight attendants were still standing all were fine. But as the turbulence gets longer, the shake becomes more intense where in the food and drinks served started to fall and drop. Honestly at this time, I felt a little nervousness already especially the woman beside me was now intensely praying with her rosary. Then all changed when all the attendants were asked to sit and we all started to feel heart-stopping mini drops likes riding a roller coaster and plane shakes like King Kong was outside the plane. Loud engine and shake noises added to the situation making me think that "something is really going wrong right now".
Then only after a few seconds when I looked at the woman beside me, she was already crying in fear and started to bring her bible out hugging it and saying loud panic statements like "God help us!!".. And that shout made the difference, I now was too very very nervous thinking that "is it really my time now? Now that I am riding this plane alone with no family members around me? God, am I the only bad person in my clan worth to cut my time short?" It really feels that the plane was dropping already where it came to a point that I said to myself and Him "Lord, I am ready. If it is my time, its my time" I wish I should've said "Thank you for everything" to Him at least then but I really don't remember saying such things that instance.
But luckily I started to feel the plane going back to normal and in control of the pilot. We all feel relieved and if I remember it right when the plane landed, all of the passenger applauded. I actually do remember as well the matured man talking to me about his wife saying that she really is afraid of plane rides and is not used to it even thought they have done it a lot of times already. And at the back of my mind I was just saying "Yeah right.. -_- it even got me too". HAHA!
I actually realized in that experience that even though how much you are prepared for such a thing to happen especially when it is your first, it is still an entire different story and feeling when you are already experiencing it yourself. But the best thing to do in order to face it and increase your chances of making it good is being ready in all aspects - physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually.
But believe me or not, I still thank God for everything that had happened because that kind of experiences are such treasures where you feel more the love of God. And the first thing I did upon un-boarding the plane was to immediately share it to my family when we met each other after years of our last meetings. They were all laughing when I shared it to them because I was stating each detail of it with feelings. I told them it was really not funny when I was in the situation. But I honestly did laughed at it as well after because I did not image that it will come to a point that I will say to myself that I was ready for it. Well, God has more plans for me and who knows sharing this article may be one of them.
