Eye of the Storm

Last Wednesday as I was coming into Albany we flew through this:

Light flashed in the sky and then the plane took a dip to the side, sending the passengers into a frenzy as drinks flew, ice fell, electronic gadgets dropped, and sleeping folks woke up. An older French woman behind me started chanting 'Ay Jesus!' (or the French equivalent) over and over while making the sign of the cross.  It was the worst turbulence I have ever experienced and I was genuinely scared and began to panic myself.

However, I was fortunate enough to be seated next to a 12-year old girl who looked up at me with tears in her eyes and asked "Are we going to crash??"

Then my logical teacher brain kicked in and I said "Of course not, what would we crash into up in the air?"  I calmly wiped her spilled ice into the cup as the plane was shaking and told her that almost all crashes happen during take off or landing when we are close to the ground.  I am not sure if that is actually true, but I heard that once and it seemed like something good to stay when the plane was dancing in the clouds.  What amazed me most is that I became extremely calm and I couldn't focus on my own panicky heartbeat.

I thought to myself I hope the guy sitting in the exit aisle can stay calm if we crash.


I once read a very sad article about 9/11 and how so many people could have exited the building if they would have understood the danger they were in--and that people who did realize what was happening went into a sort of decision paralysis.  The point of the article was that the people who did get out, and got out quickly, were people who knew the layout of the building very well.  Their brains were not paralyzed because they had practiced leaving the building in emergency situations.

As a former teacher I have experienced the following emergencies:

--Lost teenager in Europe
--Passed out teenager in the streets of Spain
--4 intoxicated, vomiting teenagers on a bus and in an airport
--Driving on twisty streets down an Italian canyon under construction during a thunderstorm to reach teenagers from whom I had become separated
--Lost teenagers in downtown Los Angeles during a conference
--A tweener running in the classroom and beating another student's head against a desk
--Searching teenagers for drugs during a dance to find the source of the pharmaceuticals
--Countless "teenage emergencies" from relationship drama to lost money/ipods

I decided that the presence of a 12-year old on that airplane is what pulled the familiar from my own brain and got me into my zone.  I hope that if I am ever in any real emergency that there is a teenager in the room (that I am not related to, si claro!) to save my life.