From JuJu with Love

I fully understand how ridiculous this sounds coming from someone with over 820,000 lifetime miles on Delta Airlines alone. I travel constantly. I board planes the way most people board elevators. And yet… I am afraid of flying.

It’s not so much afraid of flying, but afraid of crashing. Not the calm cruising at 35,000 feet with a Diet Coke and an aisle seat. My fear of flying was earned much earlier — long before frequent flyer miles, airport lounges, or TSA PreCheck.

When I was a kid, my mom was afraid of flying too. But instead of avoiding it, she decided to conquer her fear the most logical way possible: she learned how airplanes worked. And then, because logic sometimes goes too far, she took flying lessons.

Which is how my dad, my sisters, our 80 lb Bouvier Clouseau and I became passengers in a small Cessna.

If you’ve never flown in a small plane, let me clarify: there is no ignoring turbulence. You feel everything. Every bump, every gust of wind, every noise that sounds like something important has come loose. And on one particularly heroic — and slightly terrifying — winter day, we flew from Pontiac up to our cottage in Harbor Springs, Michigan.

The weather was terrible. Snowy. Windy. Gray. The kind of day when sane people stay on the ground.

As we approached Harbor Springs Airport, my mom couldn’t find the landing strip. She circled. And circled. The snow made everything look the same, and visibility kept getting worse. Eventually, she did the only smart thing she could do: she changed the flight plan midair and rerouted us to Pellston Airport, which was far better equipped to handle the weather.

We landed safely. Of course we did.

But something in me landed that day too — a lifelong respect for flying… and a fear that never quite went away.

Because I’m still afraid to fly today.

I don’t like it. I pray as I’m getting on the plane. I kiss the ground when I land. I grip the armrests during turbulence and remind myself that millions of people fly safely every single day — even if my inner child is still sitting in the back of a Cessna wondering if this was a great idea.

But I do it anyway.

I do it because I love to travel. I love the world too much to let fear keep me grounded. I love the places, the people, the stories, and the moments waiting on the other side of the flight.

And because, quite simply, you can’t take a Greyhound to Tokyo.

From Juju with love 💙✈️