Well, it’s Friday. The day before I leave for my yearly work trip to Aspen, Colorado. It’s 4:18pm and I’m at work….and I’m looking around. Nobody is here. Apparently, they’ve all left for the day. Sweet. I mean, it is Friday. I’m posting this now so I don’t forget to write later because obviously I can’t be doing personal blogging at work. However, stay tuned….tomorrow morning I head out. I’ll catch up then.
In resurrecting my blog, I’ve decided to not just write about my job, but about all aspects of myself and my life. Some will be serious, some funny and some probably a bit of both and might even occasionally touch on the spiritual end. I suppose it will depend on mood, location and whatever the hell is going on in my life at that time! Always, Never & Sometimes…Maybe 😉
I decided on the first leg out I was going to venture out of my comfort zone and talk with the woman who was sitting next to me on the plane, who it looked as if, even before take off was going to “zone out” on her iPad. I can’t blame her. How many times of late had I sat on a plane and immediately gotten on my phone or opened a book just to avoid having to strike up conversation? Now, I’m not one to be rude and interrupt people, especially if they don’t feel like talking. However, you never know…until you try and you might just meet someone interesting. That’s how it used to be on planes before the smart phone craze that left us all somehow a little less close, even when sitting right next to one another. So, I took a deep breath and said “Are you from Chicago”? I asked, because that’s where my layover to Aspen was. She looked up and said “From London, but we have a place in Chicago because that’s where I used to work and we have family”. She smiled and so I continued the conversation a bit more. It was a few minutes later that she closed up her iPad and put it away. That was when I knew she was open to talking. I thought to myself, ‘this is my opportunity to change the way I interact, to ask questions, actually get to know someone and start bridging the gap of this social media world’. We ended up talking the full 2 hours of the flight and I found that she was an extraordinary woman, mother, worker, wife. She was a bit older than me and she owned a few homes in the US and then one in London. We began talking about books and reading and she gave me some amazing suggestions on books that were right up my alley. At that moment, I knew that was one of the reasons we met. I made a point to ask her questions, to listen intently, to give her my full attention. I tried really hard to be aware of not talking over her or answering with something that would seem like I knew everything or had “been there, done that”. It was amazing to watch her smile and get excited by me asking questions and genuinely being interested in the answers. Isn’t that what we all want? To be heard? At the end of the flight she smiled and said “Well, this was fun, wasn’t it?!”. My heart grew tremendously in that moment. She gave me her card and asked to keep in touch. I was thrilled. One more person in this world that I now knew and who knows what the future will hold with that? We may never speak again or see one another again or we might become really great friends. I suppose it’s up to each of us. Or, she might just be a gift in that moment, a lesson for me or perhaps I was a lesson for her. All I knew was that I wanted to make sure that whoever’s path I crossed, they saw it as something good.
I hopped off the plane feeling just a little nicer, a little kinder and a little more grounded. Plus, I had somewhat faced a fear. Most don’t see me as shy, but I am particularly shy when I don’t know someone…so being the first one to talk was a challenge, but one that I welcomed and I know next time it will be even easier. And, I hadn’t even had a drink!
I hopped on my next flight an hour or so later and sat down next to a young girl in her 20’s. The minute I sat down she asked if the rows ahead of me were open. I said I didn’t know. She looked and said “They’re open, we don’t all have to sit next to each other squeezed in here” and got up and moved. So….then, there was that. I simply smiled and thought, “Well, 1 out of 2 isn’t bad. Let’s hope she is just having a bad day and doesn’t always come across so thoughtless”. Who knows.
In any case, I had the whole row to myself! I DID have a drink on that flight. Mostly because I love to drink, but partly because I’ll admit, I was a bit frustrated by the total turnaround of events on this flight. However, after 15 minutes, I let it go. I sprawled out in my row, watched a movie and made it safe and sound to Aspen. So, sometimes the flights are friendly…sometimes not. But, I bet they can ALWAYS be interesting…if you allow for it 😉
Who’s Misty? 