Thirty years ago, I boarded my first flight, all alone. I still can feel the butterflies I had in my stomach back then, and how I was trying to control the trembling in my fingers when I handed over my ticket and collected my boarding pass.
I walked towards the airplane, after bidding goodbye to my friend, feeling teary, but making attempts to be brave...
Your first flight, and you are supposed to be all excited right? Well I can't recall any emotional memory of excitement; it was predominantly fear, and sadness at leaving all that was familiar, on a trip to an unknown place.
When I turned back and looked, I could see my friend standing behind a tree, crying. I waved out, gave a thumbs up sign, trying to reassure her (or myself) and walked into the plane.
That was thirty years ago... Today, when I once again boarded a plane alone, I remembered all those memories and feelings, and marveled at how we go through the same thoughts and feelings again and again. Only today, I was a lot more composed, a lot more accepting of life and felt the motions of
actions as an observer.
However , the wonder of a rising sun over the mountains below you when seen through the window of the airplane, the whiffs of clouds rushing past and the multitude of colors the horizon took early in the morning are some things that did not cease to still captivate me... I would not like to pass by wonders of nature as if they were as casual and humdrum as merely existing!!
In that sense, I rewound again to thirty years ago, and hope I continue to do so! The beauty of a baby's smile, the smell of the first drops of rain on a dusty surface, the sight of your favorite flower, the feel of smooth grass or the sand on the beach under your feet, the giggle of a child when you tickle her.... These emotional memories should never cease to bring a smile to your face. If it ceases, then life becomes as mundane as just boarding a flight!!!
I walked towards the airplane, after bidding goodbye to my friend, feeling teary, but making attempts to be brave...
Your first flight, and you are supposed to be all excited right? Well I can't recall any emotional memory of excitement; it was predominantly fear, and sadness at leaving all that was familiar, on a trip to an unknown place.
When I turned back and looked, I could see my friend standing behind a tree, crying. I waved out, gave a thumbs up sign, trying to reassure her (or myself) and walked into the plane.
That was thirty years ago... Today, when I once again boarded a plane alone, I remembered all those memories and feelings, and marveled at how we go through the same thoughts and feelings again and again. Only today, I was a lot more composed, a lot more accepting of life and felt the motions of
actions as an observer.
However , the wonder of a rising sun over the mountains below you when seen through the window of the airplane, the whiffs of clouds rushing past and the multitude of colors the horizon took early in the morning are some things that did not cease to still captivate me... I would not like to pass by wonders of nature as if they were as casual and humdrum as merely existing!!
In that sense, I rewound again to thirty years ago, and hope I continue to do so! The beauty of a baby's smile, the smell of the first drops of rain on a dusty surface, the sight of your favorite flower, the feel of smooth grass or the sand on the beach under your feet, the giggle of a child when you tickle her.... These emotional memories should never cease to bring a smile to your face. If it ceases, then life becomes as mundane as just boarding a flight!!!
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