Flying is easy

Flying is easy, this was my thoughts last night while drinking Bourbon and beer to celebrate the 4^th of July, it was not a random thought either, however you might be forgiven to think that this was simply drunk or drug fueled.

All this stems from a irrational and misplaced fear of flying that has had me pretty grounded to this island for too many years, however that changed a month ago when love finally got me on a plane, yes love for a girl I had met and a fear of letting someone down, both of them made me walk down that gangway even though my brain was screaming at me to turn around and find a nice Irish girl. I remember finding my seat and wondering what the fuck I was doing in this cigar case, so I sat down and closed my eyes and prayed that they would just close the doors and remove the choice of running, they did and my panic got worse.

As you can imagine my first flight was full of anxiety and panic, I never quite settled for the seven hours, every knock every rumble set me in a panic but I was looked after by the nice people at Aer Lingus right up to disembarking at Chicago O’Hare (I never did get to meet the hostess again). The worry for me was, as I looked for my internal flight I still did not want to go back up, I did not care that it was only just over an hour of flying to Minneapolis, it was still in the air, in a confined place, it just felt wrong. Still the girl I was seeing knew I had landed so avoiding it again was not possible, it was tempting to get the blue line into the city and stay there but I remembered a promise so once again, up I went.

I remember putting my headphones on, looking over at the pair of amazing legs that belonged to the girl on the window seat and thinking to myself “hmmmmm” . wtf I was supposed to be scared, not eyeing some girl up, I went back to my music and I left her to read her book, it crossed my mind though, that maybe flying is not so bad, amazing how wrong I was, I’m not sure what got to me, I think it was the aggressive banking over the city in a small plane, or the fact my brain was in overdrive, but I started praying, this was worse, much worse than the other flight. Thank god it was only an hour (they got in early).

In the end I had another three flights left, a week later I flew from Minneapolis to San Francisco, I spent most of the flight upset and angry after a incident so I did not really care where I was, or the bumps, strange noises, low cloud that hid the city on landing, I was just happy to be leaving Minneapolis for the weekend and to meet Paul and the family after so many long long years. I had a great weekend. On the way back to Minneapolis after a few days I got the red eye service which leaves at 12am and arrive about 6:30am, for a three and half hour flight, it knackers you, but the strange thing was, while on the flight I realised that, I had no worries, I was calm, and I was able to fall asleep. I got off the plane and I was smiling in the knowledge that I had had my first ever “pleasant flight”

The following Friday I was ready to fly home, I had just spend three amazing days in Chicago and was broke, smelly (bloody humidity) and for the first time ever looking forward to settling down on a plane, only issue was everything was delayed. Chicago had been hit by the most violent thunderstorms I had ever seen. Despite this though I was not worried, I have to admit to a little fear when we flew, the turbulence was very bad but it only worried me a little, more that it would make me sick or that I would need to pee before he turned off the seatbelt light. I had finally got over my fear of flying.

I have been thinking lately what this means for me, a whole new world of adventures could wait. I’m going to have them adventures as well, but first I need to change a few things about my life at home, money needs to be tightened, my life needs to get more positive, things I must do in order to keep my drive up, I’ve already started planning my next adventure which will be Demark in September, London is also on the cards now, possible New York for Christmas, Christ I’m excited thinking about itJ. In the end, I was lead over to the states on false ideas, she was not the girl I thought I knew but I still have to thank her, I fell in love with America and I got over my fear of flying, i had a amazing time and this has now opened up a whole new world to me, a world which I plan to see. If I had not met her I would not be doing any of this.