Airplanes: The Ever Joyous Experience.

Riding on an airplane usually allows the mind to picture a feeling of luxury, of class, or cruising in the sky, blending in with the downy fluffs of clouds. However, simply put, riding on an airplane tends to suck. Your flying experience all depends on one simple thing: the people you’re sitting by on the flight. Of course, if you’re one of those lucky people who managed to be part of a group that perfectly fills up one row of seats, then you’re whole flight may be pleasurable and complaint free. On the other hand, if you’re stuck next to an unfamiliar stranger for 13 hours, and that stranger just happens to have extremely bad body odor, well, I’d say you’re in for a preeetty bad flight. On my flight back from China this summer to the Chicago O‘hare airport, I had the joy of sitting in front of a man that seemed slightly airsick, and most likely had been traveling for a very long time and not washed. Everytime this man stood up, everyone within two seats of him was treated to the extremely odious whiff of his scent. Luckily, as he was sick, him standing up didn’t happen very often. Actually, I even distinctly remember a lady next to me actually telling him that he would “feel better” after getting some hamburgers into his system.

Another not so luxurious experience I have the pleasure of recalling took place on yet another international flight. My family was seated in the middle aisle on a Boeing 747, and my sister, being the always thoughtful soul that she was, decided that there was no WAY that she could act like an older sister and let me sit between her and my mom. Instead, she fell upon her usual torturous ways, and forced me not very gently into sitting on the edge of the seats taken by our family, next to a man who, without making much of an effort, took up his seat and half of my own. Throughout the whole flight, I struggled to keep myself in a tightly rolled ball as to avoid kicking or pushing him with my feet. It was hard. I finally fell asleep with my hands tightly clasped together around my knees, and was rudely awoken after only thirty minutes of peace and tranquility by none other than my sister, who then proceeded to reprimand me in loud and extremely irritating tones for taking up too much space on my chair and kicking the man next to me. As IF I had a choice.