Life, Love and Traveling During COVID
Last week, I embarked on my first travel-by-plane experience since COVID-19 imploded 2020. I fully admit: I was slightly terrified to fly again. The idea of being in an airport wearing a mask for hours on end was scary enough in itself but the thought of being on a fully booked flight all breathing in the same air was paralyzing. Normally, I am someone who takes 2–3 trips by plane a *month* and I had not flown since March of this year so when I say paralyzing, I literally mean too restricted by fear to fly. However, I am happy to report that everything went swimmingly and now my fear is much abated. Southwest Airlines is keeping middle seats open until the end of September, which while scientifically probably doesn’t make much of a difference, mentally it was an added comfort. The flight attendants on both of my flights gave very clear instructions on the fact that masks were required for the full duration of the flight, that they would only be handing out cups of water & a snack bag, and how to properly wear a mask. That’s right, the flight crews are required to instruct full grown adult humans how to cover their faces…. and some of them still f*cked it up. HOW do people NOT understand that you breathe out of your NOSE TOO?! Grown a** people walking around lookin’ like fools with their masks down under their noses; seriously, do they not understand how breathing works? You will have to excuse my *** language, I just find it infuriating that people would care so little about the other humans around them that they won’t even properly cover their breath holes. Anywayyysss, overall I would say that traveling during this pandemic is not so bad — just wear your mask, one with a filter if you have it, and wash your hands. A lot. I personally also brought along alcohol wipes to clean off my seat on the plane before sitting down, which I ended up being grateful for because I was on the plane during one of my layovers and saw the cleaning crew come through. Let’s just say that you would be doing yourself a service to wipe down your seat and tray table in addition to the “cleaning” they already do. I might start carrying alcohol wipes permanently when flying, even when there isn’t a pandemic going on.
That’s my story! I am going to start flying more again now, having ripped off the band-aid and found it isn’t so bad. My mask with a filter was surprisingly breathable and I honestly didn’t mind the slight inconvenience of keeping it on for several consecutive hours. Plus, the time I got to spend in North Carolina with my mom made it all completely worth it. I look forward to resuming some travel, on a smaller scale, but still, and I hope my tales of traveling during COVID help any of you that were thinking of taking back the sky. Be smart, be safe, wear a mask, wash your hands and let’s get back to living.
