Reply #44: My life requires it

[Patiod]

It's part of my job, and I'd be unemployable at what I get paid pretty decently to do (focus groups and in-person interviews) if I didn't fly.

It's all in the way you approach it.

As someone mentioned, flying lessons (real or virtual) are reassuring, since you'll realize that there are really only two "dangerous" moments in flying: take-off and landing. And both of those are WAY less dangerous than pulling out of your driveway. Once you're up in the air, it's pretty much all gravy, even if you hit some turbulence.

I'm an unmedicated ADD type, and I look at the airplane it as a distraction-free place to study new materials or write reports - no DU or AirAmerica or anything else to tempt me away from work. Second, I can never relax at home - there's always SOMETHING I should be doing, some cleaning, organizing, filing, phone calls, bills, planting, wash or mending that is nagging at me. On the plane, there is NOTHING to do but read or work. Finish off the latest New Yorker or just a good book with 0% guilt.

Second, how cool is it that you can be in Philadelphia this morning, and be having lunch this afternoon in San Francisco, looking over the Bay? Or buying boots in Dallas? Or walking by the lake in Chicago? Or sitting on the hotel balcony in Ft. Lauderdale listening to a steel drum band? Is this a great time to live, or what?

Full disclosure: I didn't get my driver's license until I was 19, and then only under intense pressure (coupled with wonderful support) from my Dad, who was concerned that my terror of driving would hold me back in life. I can drive fine now, but was scared to death as a kid - so we all have our fears!