I kinda hate flying. I know, I know –  it’s the safest form of travel, and you’re more likely to die in the car ride on the way to the airport and blah, blah, blah. People survive car crashes. Who survives plane crashes? If you do you must resort to performing your own dental work and befriending a volley ball.

I had to fly to LA this weekend for work, and while I managed to keep it together on the plane, there was a part of me crying on the inside every time we hit a rough patch. I bought a bunch of magazines to keep myself occupied and, on the trip back to NY, happened to find this blurb in the December issue of Real Simple:

Check out item #3 of this list of things the late, great Nora Ephron wished she’d known: The plane is not going to crash.

Somehow this blanket statement listed alongside “You can’t own too many black turtleneck sweaters” made me feel bettter.

Other things that made me cry this weekend:

Wasabi peas.

One of my coping mechanisms for travel anxiety is excessive snacking. I buy a LOT of different snacks, including some stuff that I hardly ever eat under normal circumstances. For some reason, I grabbed a bag of wasabi peas.  I seriously feel possessed when I eat these things. I’ll be happily crunching a long and then, like, every 3rd handful some kind of spicy mustard demon takes over my head and sets my nose on fire. I clutch my face and cry until the sensation passes. And then I have another handful of wasabi peas. Why?!

The last thing that made me cry this weekend was this song:

I saw it performed live at an event by Kristin Chenoweth and Anna Kendrick. I’m not really a musical theater sap, but something about the lyrics got me.

It well may be

That we will never meet again

In this lifetime

So let me say before we part

So much of me

Is made from what

I learned from you

You’ll be with me

Like a handprint on my heart

And now whatever way our stories end

I know you have re-written mine

By being my friend…

The whole idea of people in your life rewriting your story… Sometimes I’ll think about one person and be like “well, if I hadn’t have met them, then I never would have done this, and then that thing never would have happened…” And there are a few things that people have said to me that have completely changed my perspective on big things like relationships and my career as well as smaller things like the best way to receive a compliment (btw – just respond with a simple and genuine “thank you.”)

Question: Who’s rewritten your story? Maybe it’s just one paragraph. Maybe it’s a whole chapter.