3 Poems Born of the Thrill of First Time Travel
The first time I got on an airplane, I was terrified. I was headed to Toronto, Canada, for a small first taste of international travel. I was incredibly excited to leave the country for the first time, but I’d never so much as set foot inside of an airport before and I watched a few too many Final Destination movies growing up to look forward to the flight itself.
I knew, statistically speaking, that I was almost definitely going to be fine. The Economist did a crash course in probability a few years back where they determined that most flights have a one in 4.8 to 5.4 in a million chance of crashing. Those are some nice, comforting statistics. Who wouldn’t take a one in 5.4 million chance?
Nevertheless, that first experience flying sparked this poem.
I’m quite pleased to say I can fly without succumbing to unlikely worries now. Looking back on this piece, I can chuckle about those past anxieties now. Sometimes, even when probability is on your side and you logically know that you’re fine, you still have to go through it once before you really grasp that you’re fine.
