First Airplane Ride

It was not until I’m eighteen that I finally have the chance to experience what’s an airplane ride feels like.

Last week, I had this chance to (at last) take my first plane ride in my entire life. Of course, the same with my other first times, I was tense – well, truthfully, extremely tense. You know the feeling of taking an amusement ride? Well, multiply that to ten times. That’s close to how I felt.

I expected the worst and literally said my last prayers thinking I will fall in a faint and die on the plane because of so much fright. I have the worst case of acrophobia, you see. I am, in no way, trying to exaggerate this.




But, paradoxically, the bracing rush and superb conspiring energies pacified my fear. The sensation of an airplane take-off is exhilarating. I’d say it embodies the definition of being liberated…of freedom that keeps you on the edge of our seat. You can feel the pressure on your ears and the wrenching in your stomach --- of flying. And knowing that you’re being taken into the air and you don’t have any control of it, now that’s real suspense. And being unsure if you will reach your destination or not, surely, you’ll bite your nails. It was a bit emotional for me.


And thousand feet away from the ground, in your window seat, you can see how everything slowly turns into little Lego pieces and matchboxes. The clouds are as puffy and white and cottony as it is from afar. The speed is indiscernible yet you know that you’re going nowhere but way up there, crossing both altitudes and borders.



My second flight, that’s returning to Iloilo, was beautiful. Because it was night time when we departed from the terminal, the sky was so dark that the city lights were not meddled by light pollution and it sparkled into a manifold of different colors. From above, it was like a time-warped experience. It was as if the below you is the star-swept night sky.




Forty-five minutes later, we landed. I think, every landing is a wonder. It is only when the plane sets its wheels on the ground that you feel hey, you’ve survived, you’ve arrived! Congratulations.

At five thousand and three hundred fifty feet, I was a bundle of jitters and nerves...and literally way cooler than ever!