Airplanes

Yesterday I took a flight from Springfield to Chicago, and then a connecting flight from Chicago to Philadelphia, where my stepmom picked me up to go to New Jersey. I am on vacation for 11 days. My little brother just turned 16, and he is taking the vacation with me. He has never flown before; I have only flown once before. I remember being terrified, because I am scared of heights, and that is a drastically high ride. Everyone always told me that it is completely different, but I never believed them. Of course, after taking that first flight I realized that they were right, and I loved flying. So this time around I was excited; no nerves what so ever, just excitement. My brother, however, was terrified. For the same reasons that I was when I flew for the first time. He tried to play it off cool, but once we were on the plane he started looking a bit nervous. Once the engines started, he looked panicked. I just smiled and told him that he would love it once the initial fear wore off. He wondered why I didn't say "It'll be ok" or something else comforting. I guess I'm not good with comforting, because I told him that no matter what I say, the fear will still be there, until you actually go through the experience and see for yourself that it really is ok. Once we took off and were in the air he relaxed and we had a blast. I warned the surrounding passengers that we were your average tourists and were going to take full advantage of the situation to be touristy. That meant a lot of pictures. We had fun with it though and ended up being goofy enough to get other passengers involved. We even had everyone trading phones to take pictures out of each other's windows. I loved it. I loved the experience of flying in the tiny Springfield plane and then switching to a jumbo sized one in Chicago. I loved navigating the airports and the thrill of rushing to find our terminals on time. I loved looking out and seeing how close the clouds were; so close I felt like I could stick out my arm and touch them just like I always tried to do to the leaves of trees while driving in the car. I loved seeing the tiny cities and trying to make out the different plots of land. I will never understand how people can go on a flight and immediately shut the window to sleep or read a magazine. Don't get me wrong, I love reading (and sleeping), but I would never miss the opportunity to see the world at that height.