Many of you know me through my writing, and I truly appreciate you tuning in each week. What I haven’t shared, is how much I love to dance. In fact, I take great pride in the type of friend that I am, and the way that I dance. I just love it. Almost as much as I love my friends. On any special occasion, our friend group gets together, and we do a performance. It has become our thing.
Last week, one of our friends was celebrating her 25th anniversary. We, as a group, had started practicing about a month ago. There was an entire performance planned. Now, it’s the week before the event, and everybody is practicing all week. I am out of town at Robin Robins. I was supposed to come home on Wednesday evening. I even changed my original flight (and paid a lot more to do so) just so that I could make it back to Jersey in time to go to dance practice. This was going to be the last practice before the big event. I rushed out of the conference and headed over to Nashville International Airport. I’m at the gate, they board us on the plane, we’re ready to go and they’re about to close the doors.
All of a sudden, one passenger comes from the back of the plane and says that the flight is going to be delayed and she needs to get off the plane. There’s confusion up at the front. Next thing you know everybody’s cell phone beeps, the flight has been delayed. Originally it said that there was a ground stop in Newark due to weather, and it would only be two hours late. Everybody has to grab all their bags and get off the plane. We were so close, maybe 10 minutes and we would’ve been airborne.
Some of the passengers ran off the plane and made it over to Southwest and spirit. Both airlines were still flying to Newark. I really couldn’t blame United Airlines for wanting to play it safe, with all their bad press recently. But Lord, I really needed to get on the flight. The other flights that evening were also being delayed and the attendants at the gate said that we were the first in line to get out.
I went to get a snack and I waited out the two hours for the delay. We are 10 minutes before boarding and we get another notification. There’s another delay of an hour, and then an hour, finally I know that this flight is just not going to take off. I try to reschedule for first thing in the morning. Now, my friend was having a religious ceremony the next morning and part of the festivities were beginning. So not only did I miss dance practice, but my flight was also now scheduled to leave at 12 PM and I wouldn’t make it in time for any of the festivities or practices. I felt bad for letting her down.
You see, I have promised my friends that I would participate in this dance, and that included practicing with everyone. I also wanted to be there for the beginning of her festivities. So not only did I miss daily practice from Monday to Wednesday, but now I was also going to miss the last practice before the big event—not on my watch. I get back to the hotel that I was staying at during the event, check back in, and then head out to a group dinner with some of prospects. By the time I make it back to my room I am exhausted, and it was 11:30pm, but I check the United Airlines app, hoping by some miracle that I can get on the 10:30 AM flight. It’s not there, but what is—a 6 AM flight. There’s one seat in the middle, in the back of the plane second to last seat.
Now, usually it doesn’t matter what aisle I’m sitting in, but being extremely claustrophobic the middle seat is very difficult for me. But I needed to get back to Newark. Anyway, I make a call and book the ticket. Now I’m one of those people who do not sleep if they have an early morning flight to catch. It’s just not going to happen. So, I make it through three hours of twisting and turning, get up and head to Nashville International Airport (yet again). The flight is a go, I board the plane, it is stifling hot in the back.
The gentleman in the seat next to me is obviously inebriated, he’s falling asleep, we have to repeatedly nudge him to move in order for our seat mate next to the window to get in. So not only am I in the middle seat, second to last row, it’s extremely hot, and I’m claustrophobic, and the gentleman next to me is so drunk he’s falling over, and I can’t get up because he’s completely asleep.
It was a complete mess. To keep my mind off of the situation, I center myself and continue reading my book. Focused intently on the story so I don’t think or allow myself to get anxious. The flight takes off and we land in Newark. It’s 9:30 AM and I have time to make it home, get dressed, and head to the festivities. By 11:30 AM, I walk in the door to my friend’s event.
I honored my commitment. By hook or by crook, I made it. Funny thing is, after all of that, they decided not to have practice that day—but that’s OK, I had my moves down, and I was ready. I knew in my heart that I had honored my commitment to my friends, I made it back in time to help celebrate her big day, and I was there for all the friends that were relying on me in our dance.
Like I said earlier, two things that I take really seriously in life—that’s my love for my friends and my love for dance. Check out a video of how well we did. Moral of the story: do whatever you have to do to honor your commitments and love your friends fiercely.
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