82 Happy thoughts, thought 14

As a junior I am a member of the 500 something most stressed out people in school. Not only am I a junior but I am a student, along with about 2100 other kids, at one of the top ten high schools in the state and while the stress at any school can get rough, everyone knows that the pressure can be intense and the workload can be high. So in the spirit of staying sane, I have started this blog to remind my fellow knights, and myself for that matter, to stop and smell the roses, take a walk in the park or watch a funny movie; essentially want everyone to take a deep breath and smile. Inspire d by the website 1000awesomethings.com, I will be posting this blog twice a week until the the end to the school year, 82 times in all, about things that are meant to make you grin. Happy moments, enjoyable memories, blissful feelings; you name it, I’ll post it. So, overall, take a minute to just relax and think happy thoughts.

Thought #14- Flying at night

OK when I say flying at night, I mean flying in a plane, though I’m sure flying any other way at night would be cool , too.

For those of you who have never flown at night, or flown at all for that matter, I would put it near the top of your bucket list.

Allow me to give you some back story.

Some of the Prospector staff and I went to Minneapolis for the annual JEA/NSPA high school journalism convention. On the way to the convention, we were supposed to take off from O’Hare at about 2:30 p.m. However, after some “computer difficulties” we had to get off of our original plane and onto a new one. We didn’t get into Minneapolis until about 6 p.m.

As terrible and irritating as that situation was, I was perfectly cool with the result: I got to see the city from above during the night when it was all lit up. There was something almost larger than life about seeing the buildings and homes shine like little matches on the ground.

Watch out, everyone, I’m about to go all philosophical on you.

Seeing all of those lights against the darkness of the night sky seemed to be like a reminder that there were thousands of people going through their lives even though the sun had shut off for the day. It didn’t matter that the sun was down, their lives were still moving. It was energizing, seeing the city below me so full of life in a time where the earth was not.

It also put my own life into perspective a little bit. By that time at night, people were sitting down to dinner with their families, preparing for a long night at the office or studying for their big test the next day. While they were doing this, I was sitting on a plane, going off on an adventure with 20 of my favorite people to a city that I didn’t know. And, living so close to O’Hare, I am one of these people going through their daily routine and there is someone flying over me seeing the lights in my house getting ready for their own adventure.

At least this is what I though about when I saw those lights, I suppose it’s different for everybody.

For those of you who skipped my attempt at deep thoughts here is the gist: there are a lot of people, they do things at night and sometimes, they fly in planes.

Not to mention, seeing all of those lights from above is simply gorgeous. It’s like looking down on a million little stars that twinkling and occasionally moving. Cars are like shooting stars, and the arrangement of the skyscrapers and apartment buildings from a constellation of city lights.

Manhattan After Dark — This is neither Minneapolis or Chicago, it's New York, but you get the idea, right?

Oh, and I didn’t get to see this just once! I was lucky enough to see it again when our flight back to Chicago was delayed four and a half hours. Thrilling thing, being stuck in the Minneapolis- Saint Paul airport for an entire day.

I should end this post before it turns into an angry rant against United Airlines, who we flew with both ways. Oh and Maggie can I recomend this as a new “Maggie Matters” topic?

So I guess this is just making some really good lemonade out of rotten lemons.

ProspectorNow

ProspectorNow

ProspectorNow

82 Happy thoughts, thought 14

ProspectorNow

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