Perspective

Perspective. For those who live in this area, you may have seen this story on KOMO News. They had a reporter at the airport to report on all of the people that are stuck there trying to get out of town. People have been there for 2-3 days and food supplies are diminishing. My first thought/question is how many of those people are from here - who could go home and reduce the clog of people? But the thing that really gets me is KOMO interviewed a woman who was trying to take her two daughters to meet their grandmother. Now on the face of it, she seemed like she was understanding of the situation and taking it in stride. Until she said that she couldn't understand how the airline employees could be so rude. Hmmm.... now granted, I am not at the airport to witness whether people are rude or not. But what immediately came to my mind, was that maybe, just maybe, all of those people trying to fly out of town should try putting themselves in the shoes of the airline employees. I certainly don't envy them having to deal with hundreds, if not thousands, of angry people - and all over something they had no control over. Come on people. Cut them some slack. And did you ever stop to think that maybe they haven't been able to get home and have been stuck at the airport for all of these days as well? So for anyone that does get to fly out of Seatac this week - can you say thank you to those airline employees for doing the best that they can under the circumstances?

Now with that said, I will admit that I used to be one of those uptight travelers - upset if my flight got delayed. Until a certain flight home from Reno about 2 years ago. I was suppose to be on a 7am flight on a Friday morning. That flight got cancelled and I was put on the 2:30 flight. The 2:30 flight didn't end up leaving until 4:30. So needless to say, I was not a happy camper after spending the day in the airport. And I just wanted to get home. When we were about 45 minutes outside of Seattle, I noticed some commotion a few rows up. Apparently, there was a gentleman having a major health issue and having complications staying conscious. I was so impressed with how well the stewardesses handled the situation so calmly. And you knew it was serious when the pilots kicked in the afterburners and threw the plane into a major decline all in an effort to get us on the ground in Seattle as fast as possible. I remember praying that the guy would still be alive when we landed. Once we were on the ground and at the gate, they let those in the rows ahead off, as well as anyone that had connecting flights. But they did ask those of us who were "home", to please wait while the paramedics came on board. Ummm, yeah. You betcha! That single incident forever changed my outlook on traveling. Getting uptight over delayed or cancelled flights doesn't gain you a single thing. Well maybe just more stress. And it just isn't worth it. I will say, that for a good 6 months after that, every flight I took to Reno and back was on time. I have since experienced flight delays - but now I just take it in stride and I also try to be extra nice to the airline employees because I know there are alot of people that give them grief over things that aren't their fault. So the next time you fly, please try to keep perspective.