Day 4 of The Scintilla Project.

Being trapped in a confined environment can turn an ordinary experience into a powder keg. Write about a thing that happened to you while you were using transportation; anything from your first school bus ride, to a train or plane, to being in the backseat of the car on a family road trip. Trapped in a confined metal box. Hundreds of random travelers. Laptops, iPods, pillows and blankets are being thrown around. Sneezes and coughs are magnified x 5 in this metal box. Ears popping and fizzy drinks are being consumed. We're all headed to the same place - though some are connecting to another place in the world. Being on a plane is scary as hell.I hate heights. More than almost anything. The idea that we're all in a metal box flying somewhere, no support, just a huge fucking metal box in the air, going hundreds of miles an hour. Whenever I imagine flying, I picture people walking around the plane and sitting, I'm looking at this plane from the outside. At any point (at least in my head I imagine this) the plane can go down. The propellers can stop working or something can hit the plane, causing it to lose control and crash. I'm reading too much into this because I hear planes are one of the safest modes of transportation, but my mind always pictures the worst possible scenario.Last year, I've taken a ton of plane rides, going to and from Texas and Syracuse. Visiting my sister for break only to go back home and a few weeks later, permanently move here. I'd taken a few plane rides before but never alone. Though I hate flying, I always feel best when traveling. Walking through the airports looking for my destination, especially when I'm alone. Hundreds of people looking for their connecting flights, whether they're going to see family or take a vacation, we're all looking for the same thing. As exciting as this whole thing is, the flying part is the worst for me. If I have a few connecting flights, the more planes I take, the better I get when flying. The first ride is always the scariest, freaking out right before take off, nervously strapping myself into the seat and getting situated for take-off. I remember when I was going to visit my sister, I had three flights to take, two bigger planes and one tiny plane. Tiny planes are the worst and if I ever have to take another, I'll probably have a panic attack. They feel everything and being in a confined space is bad enough for me, but one that small? That's just cause for a major breakdown in the middle of the aisle for me. Turbulence is painful for me, I hear people say they love it or it doesn't bother them, but me? Like I said, I imagine the absolute worst situation that could happen. That's when I really fucking panic. The rides weren't bad, until I got on my last plane ride. It was a big plane, so I thought no big deal, but then I read how long the flight was. Almost three hours. That was torture. I'm fine if it's only an hour or so, I actually love those flights, it seems like by the time you get in the air, it's time to descend onto ground again. Not this time. I was also sitting IN BETWEEN a couple. I told them they could sit next to each other but they declined and I'm still not sure why. I guess it worked out for the best because they really calmed me down on this flight. This flight was over two hours, consisted of a lot of turbulence and we were also flying by a storm.  They kept mentioning that we would be flying through it and I was secretly dying on the inside. My thoughts went from "It must be fine, they probably do this all the time. They wouldn't be flying near it if it wasn't safe to do so." to "HOLY MOTHER OF CHRIST WE'RE GOING TO GET SUCKED INTO THE STORM AND DIE AND I'LL NEVER GET TO SEE MY SISTER." Yeah, some say I need crazy pills. I tend to agree in moments like this.Now, to this day I still think I safely made it without causing a huge commotion on the plane thanks to that older couple on the plane. See, they were coming back from a trip they took to Europe. If you know me, you know I absolutely love Europe. I wanted to hear all about their travels and finds. They had pictures and stories to tell me. We spent the entire flight talking about it. It really took my mind off things and I'm grateful for that.Until we got to that little part about the storm we were headed past.The couple was completely intrigued by it. Me? I was horrified. That picture I posted was part of it. It doesn't look bad and to be honest, it wasn't completely terrible, but it was my first time going through a storm so I imagined seeing birds being swooped into this cloud and cows moo'ing. I remember as we went through it, I was getting shaky and hot. I was fumbling with my hands and I kept telling them to tell me more stories or show me more pictures. They knew I was nervous. I'm shy by nature, so for me to be the one talking the most and asking all of these questions, you know something is wrong. We made it to our destinations safely, obviously.. but it wasn't easy. Any time I take another plane, I imagine that storm or being stuck in that metal box for another couple of hours. The funny thing is, in less than two weeks I'm going to be taking a few flights with my sister to North Carolina. One flight is longer than two hours. I freaked out on her and she already yelled at me and told me not to get crazy on her. I'm so grateful for that couple. I would of made it safely if they weren't there, but I tend to get the weirdos sitting next to me on flights, or I'm usually always asked to switch seats with people. They (for the most part) kept me calm and took my mind off the flight and they were able to share their experience with my absolute dream destination. They were so kind and such a cute couple and it really was a great experience, even with that storm and my fear of flying.