Facing Fears: Flying

Some life changing events had caused me to have to fly to another country. This change was demanding me to face a long ago fear of heights. Every since I was in fourth grade I discovered I had a fear of heights. It began as I sat in the middle of the floor of the top of the St. Louis arch crying because I could feel the arch sway in the wind.

The only thing that got me over the fear of heights was my teacher knew I loved baseball and he picked me up and carried me over to the window so I could see the Cardinals play in their stadium. I was suddenly distracted and the height did not bother me.

Later on in life this fear had come back to me as I began to fly over seas from the United States to the Philippines. The fear of flying left me shaky and weak in the knees. TO turn around and go home was not an option for me but if this life decision was not the only decision I could make I would have turned around and gone home and never faced my fear.

After I checked my bags in and I received my boarding passes, I then searched for the gate I needed to get to. Security was a breeze to go through and I had an extra three- hour wait before my plane would be boarding. My stomach was turning as I searched for my gate. Thankfully signs were labeled over head and I was able to find my way around.

As I walked towards my gate, I found a tiny little restaurant and I stopped in to chat with my soon to be husband and have a bite to eat. The food as great but I was unable to eat much of the burger at all because my stomach was tossing and turning. The bartender suggested some alcoholic beverage to this day the name of it is cloudy to me but it helped me relax enough to stop my knees from shaking.

I had two glasses of the beverage. I then felt much better about the flight and as I chatted some more on my laptop the time had gone by faster than I had thought. Suddenly, three hours had gone by and I needed to get on board. I stopped off at a bookstore and picked up a book to read while on the plane so I would be distracted.

I managed to get a window seat on the plane, my seat mate on this sardine can type lane told me that I should force myself to look out the window since it is my first flight. I was terrified at first but as the plane began its ascension I could not pull my eyes away. The earth started to change into a painting. The more I watched out the window the more I could see the marvelous artwork that the world really was.

Suddenly, I was unaware of being in the air I as just captivated by the marvelous sight that very few people choose to take the time to see. It was truly a breathtaking moment. As we landed I smiled and realized that flying was actually a really fun thing to do rather than a scary thing that I have to do.

I conquered my fear by applying my attention to the moment. I sought the beauty within the thing that I was doing and found happiness instead of fear. I was found as I got off the plane that I was very delighted to have the experience and memory within my mind.

Though the fear caused my knees to be weak, I turned the poison of my fear into medicine to experience something new and incredible. It is hard to conquer fears but if you are strong enough and have the determination to find the beauty in the experience, then it is easy to conquer the fear.