Friday, January 13, 2012

“Flying is the safest way to travel.” Everyone has heard this saying and statistically it is completely true, but anyone that has flown in an airplane can agree that there is always that one flight that would have been more enjoyable in a car, boat, or train. I have been in a wide variety or airplane flights from small planes to big planes, short flights and ten hour flights. The most terrifying of these flights was by far an hour long flight from Atlanta to Gainesville last summer. It was the final stretch of a week-long trip to Seattle, Washington before school began and both my sisters went off to college. The trip had gone very smoothly so far but I was looking forward to getting home at last. After losing our connect flight after flying from Seattle to Atlanta, my family and I were relieved to finally get a flight to Gainesville after five hours of waiting in the airport. The plane was so small that we had to go onto the runway and take stairs to get on the plane like people would do in the past. I had the back of the plane with my sister who has never been the bravest of the family. The back of the plane tends to move more as I learned during the flight. The air was hot and humid inside the plane and outside was pitch black except for the lights flashing on the wings of the plane. The plane was moving more than I would like but I was able to block it out of my mind. I then felt my sister’s sweaty hand got my arm with a death grip on my leg. I jumped up from my day and turned to see my sister crying and I immediately thought something was wrong with the plane. I asked her what was wrong but realized that outside the flashing was become more irregular in timing and saw that there was a lightning storm going on behind the plane. It wasn’t as much the lightning that began to frighten me but the feeling that the plane began to suddenly began to slow down and the suddenly speed up, most likely to avoid more turbulence. As scared as I might have been though, I could tell that my sister was ten times as scared, so I comforted her and told her, “flying is the safest way to travel”. The plane landed safely and i was finally able to sleep in my own bed that night like i planned. This event taught me to put others before myself in times that I myself don't feel great because my sister needed the help more than I did in that situation.