So I had some time today on a 3.5-hour flight today to really get ahead. The plan was to reread all old emails, type a bunch of new ones, prospect for some new clients, and send out some texts that were long overdue. Yep, I was going to be as efficient as a well-oiled machine while flying out to the West Coast today. Somewhere, about 20 minutes outside of Atlanta, my plan got derailed when I received the “Wifi Error” message on my computer.
Being an avid flyer, although not much commercial travel anymore and probably the least tech-savvy at things like wifi, smart TVs, passwords and apps, I am no stranger to wifi woes while in flight. Some of the highlights that prove I suck at tech are as follows:
- The time I had three different monthly wifi subscriptions all thru Delta Airlines because I could never remember a password or an account.
- The time I locked my computer up so it literally sent the same email dozens of times to the same recipient (still don’t know how that happened).
- Or the last time I had this much struggle and the flight attendant felt bad and let me use her phone as my wifi hotspot on a long flight because I couldn’t connect.
So when things were obvious that it wasn’t going to be a good day in the friendly skies for my world wide web, I just shifted my direction.
I put my computer away, got out a notebook, and just started making notes. Once done making all of my tasks for the week, I started to stare off into the sky and occasionally look back at the monitor in front of me to see where the plane was over land. As we kept going, I would see cities and in just about every one we flew over, I had some experience or story that came back in my mind about it. Some of these places I hadn’t thought about in 10 plus years but it was just so amazing to think about everywhere my feet have traveled and all the time I can now reflect on.
As the hours passed, so did the memories. Mostly were good and positive ones, mixed with a couple of bad times and a lot of times that just made me laugh. The further west I flew, the more the sun faded, and the more I started seeing cities that I hadn’t yet been to and experiences I haven’t yet had, which shows excitement for the future.
All in all, this wifi error really turned into a blessing. It gave me time to reflect. It gave me time to think about the future. It gave me time to be humble – realizing I can do a lot of things, but airline wifi isn’t one of them. And it just gave me time to breathe.