These are the 13 things I learnt from my first time on a plane

I remember standing on the staircase in the Transmission Company of Nigeria talking to Whitepeng and I can still remember the shock and humor on his face and voice when I said I had never been on a plane. That was in year 2014, now it is year 2018, I am 26+ years old and I just recently broke my flying hymen (it sounds dirty).

The first thing you should understand is that I am Ijebu. It runs in my blood. I am Ijebu second after been female. I have never seen the point of wasting double the transport fare to my destination and have you all watched Lost and that episode of Baywatch?…..i am not dying that way!. 

Well, I have a new mentality all together….ish

Last year June, i was in a ghastly road accident while I was travelling from Lagos to Ilorin, the bus fare was three thousand naira and the flight was I think eighteen thousand naira and I just couldn’t imagine wasting that extra fifteen thousand naira. Well, our bus flew off a bridge and landed down below. I survived it but being on the road for short or long trips has never been the same. I get nervous and shaky and i have to take sleeping pills to ‘enjoy’ the trip. When moving to Abuja came up, I just picked the flight option, damn all my Ijebu/economists parts.

That been said, I was a bit naive when it came to booking flights online and airports and was really intimidated by the ‘caliber ‘of people I use to think were in airports, size of air-planes, all of these I got from the movies.

I remember days leading up to the D-day, I would ask what I should do, who do i walk up to, should I order Uber to take me to the airport etc.,  I was that nervous and clueless. Although my flight was booked for 4pm, I woke up as early as 5am that day (so unusual) thinking of the moment and all the things that could go wrong. I got to the airport with my sisters and we were all a bunch of clueless girls (that entire gist is for another post, back to me!).

My heart was pounding as I walked towards the security lady and asked her for directions to med view counter. 

“Is this your first” she asked

“and so?” I thought  “yes ma” I said out loud. Walking through the automatic doors I entered the airport for the first time my nerves were nervey as I got closer and closer to the counter.

I didn’t have to wait in line to get my bag checked. I was thankful to have my sisters with me because we turned the nerve wrecking situation to a humorous one. It was 4:30pm where the main pat down happened. My hand bag got checked and a lady patted me down. We were asked to also remove our shoes. It was a fun process. Then I heard it “flight to Abuja is now boarding.”, being a JJC I waited for people to get up and I followed. I handed my ticket to a beautiful woman and she tore half and gave it back.

As walked in the hall passage to the plane, I felt extremely excited

The flight attendant, who was wearing a blue dress with her hair tied back, said,” Welcome aboard med-view flight to Abuja, your sit is at 7f. I walked down to locate my seat and yes!, it was a window seat. BLISS!!!

Long story short, the flight was set to take off. The plane started to move down the run way and I was trying to figure out how this very heavy machine was going to takeoff. It was scary and intriguing. The engines roared, I got more scared and intrigued. At a point my heart was pounding very loud as the plane got faster and faster down the runway. But the beautiful part is that I didn’t even feel the takeoff (no, I didn’t close my eyes).

Sitting by the window for your first time is probably the best, my experience was magical. I was close to God and I don’t mean that in the literal sense. It was amazing been in the sky, amongst the blue and white. There and then I thought screw what science said in school. This was not vapor or whatever, something this beautiful can only be God, and there was no rational explanation. I just saw beauty as I looked outside the window.

These are the 13 things I learnt from my first time on a plane

1.       Movies are a fair representation of what really happens. Watch a lot and learn from them

2.       Don’t over analyze

3.       Book your flight online days before the day, it takes out of the nerves

4.       Bring a book along for the flight, download tiwadara, adekunle gold or jcole’s album

5.       Arrive at the airport early

6.       Check in at the airline’s counter

7.       Be patient and smile while going through security

8.       Board the flight

9.       You ears will feel weird most specially during takeoff, fear not yawn or chew a gum to make it pop back to normal

10.    Mind your space, it is not your dad’s plane

11.    Real good friends can be made up in the sky, be friendly

12.    Pay attentions to announcements

13.    Just enjoy the feels