Aviophobiac

2005-12-05T23:46:00.000-08:00

Aviophobia or Pteromeranophobia- Fear of Flying

Most people in the world have some kind of phobia or the other.

I'm shit scared of travelling.
I've also always had this fear of water, swimming. But to think about it, maybe its just that I'm scared of drowning.

Anyway, let's get back to my Fear of Flying.

Last year, my dad, sister and I went to Hyderabad. We were flying back to Madras and as soon as I got into the plane, I started getting nervous.

'What if the plane crashes?', 'What if something goes wrong and we are stranded in the middle of nowhere'. These were just a few of the thoughts going through my head.

So I take the window seat and I sit next to my Dad for comfort and safety and I'm thinking to myself, 'Everything is alright now. It's not going to be thattttt bad is it'. So I calm down and wait for the flight to take off.

Then the air-hostess comes up to our seat.

'Your sitting next to the Emergency exit. In case of any emergency, you have to follow the instructions I give you now to open the door. The lady sitting near the other Exit is a senior citizen. So you have to listen to me carefully!'

And she starts telling me slowly how to open the door and go about things 'in case of emergency'

She didn't know she was telling the wrong person all this.

Half-way through I burst out crying (Yes I'm 18 yrs old). My Dad starts laughing and the air-hostess asks if this is my first time flying. My Dad explains to her that I've flown abroad before many times and that I'm just scared of flying.

In other words, my daughter is basically a big 'bine-daan-guli' , excuse her!

Now, that was a pretty embarassing situation.

Yesterday, I eagerly booked my flight tickets to Hyderabad online. I was slightly excited travelling alone(at that moment i wasn't thinking about my previous experiences and my fears) . I got cheap tickets and immediately blocked them and my seat was confirmed.

Then my Dad asked me in a very concerned tone, 'Will you be able to manage alone? Don't cry on the flight and all. Are you sure about this? We can't cancel the tickets cause if we do, we won't get any refund.'

After he told me that, I started getting all jittery.

Sitting and thinking about the 'only 1-hour flight journey', 48 hours before the take-off, itself made me super nervous.

As I surfed the airline website, there was an option to select the seat of your choice. So I decided to block my seats beforehand.

Right behind the emergency exit ..... :)

My Bad

Aviophobiac