Fun & Famous

WHY YOU CAN GET REALLY AGITATED WHEN YOU’RE FLYING

(there is a scientific reason)

Overall I think of myself as a calm and serene person. I hardly ever get aggressive, I’ve never intensionally hit anyone or hurt someone on purpose and even though I might whine a lot, I’m a pretty happy person. That is, until I get on a plane.

Flying in itself, I love, but the whole process from checking in to lifting off is like a mine field of potential anger outbursts. It starts at the baggage drop-off, when my suitcase is half a kilo overweight. “Rules are rules!” Seriously, fuck those rules.

The whole process from checking in to lifting off is like a mine field of potential anger outbursts.

Or when you’re travelling with hand luggage consisting of a trolley and a handbag. “That’s against the rules Miss, one item per person.” I always travel with my Proenza and it’s so tiny that’s it’s more like jewelry than a bag. But the attendants are relentless. “Rules are rules!”

When I recently traveled to Venice, the person I was traveling with has the tiniest hand luggage trolley imaginable, yet the lady at the gate just still found it necessary to check if it was in line with the official measurement guidelines. The trolley fit in the measurement bucket with ease and even had room to spare, but still the Transavia lady thought it was necessary to put it in the cargo hold. The handle was literally one centimeter over the threshold. “That’s one centimeter too many. Rules are rules!” I had to count to ten in order to keep myself from cursing and yelling:  WHAT DO YOU MEAN TOO BIG, CAN’T YOU SEE THIS IS THE RIGHT FUCKING SIZE, SERIOUSLY ARE. YOU. BLIND?!

CAN’T YOU SEE THIS IS THE RIGHT FUCKING SIZE, SERIOUSLY. ARE. YOU. BLIND?!

I’m certainly not the only one who can get pretty wound up when flying. Better yet, apparently it’s a well known phenomenon that people get annoyed really quickly when they’re in the process of getting from one country to another. Flight attendants call this ‘air rage’. The reason being? Experts say that it’s caused by people becoming very aware of how little control they have over life on earth. Or in the sky, but overall about how little control they have over life in general. That’s something to think about, huh.

Dr. Martin Seif, a psychologist specialized in ‘flight anxiety’, explains how anger surfaces in situations where you have the feeling that you’re not in control. Not that we ever have total control in life, but flying is the best example of this anxiety being apparent. You can’t bring water; you can’t bring a suitcase that is half a kilo overweight, you can’t read on your iPad but you can read a book – there’s all these rules you have to obey.

And that causes intense anger and irritation. I’ve lots count of the amount of times I’ve be asked to put my tray in its stowed position in planes, but hey, being the good girl that I am, I always do what the flight attendant says because as much as I may hate it, rules are rules.