The other day, we were stuck in an airport with a delayed flight that would get us in too late to connect with our flight back to Boston, meaning we would have an extra day’s delay getting home. Many airlines were having issues due to a CrowdStrike programming upgrade that led to a crippling shutdown of many systems throughout the country, affecting airlines, banks, and who knows how many other businesses. All we could see was lost time, missed meetings, and inconvenience. The initial cost to the Fortune 1000 companies, which seemed to suffer the worst impact, was estimated to be $5.4 billion—yes, billion!
As travelers in the post-COVID world, we know how this often works: bad news now, worse news later. A late flight, a full flight, only enough meals to feed part of the passenger roster, and a few irate travelers whose business plans have been pushed off a day. All we needed was a screaming infant next to us, and we got one of those even before we left the terminal.
Then it dawned on us. We were being inconvenienced by travel capabilities that emperors, kings, and world leaders would have killed for not long ago. To travel from Alaska to Boston in a day and not be happy with it taking two instead... pretty spoiled! What would Thomas Jefferson say about our ability to travel in two days? What Lewis and Clark took two years to do on their expedition to survey the Louisiana Purchase? I can only imagine their envy of our reclining seats, snacks, and 50 entertainment channels! An extra unplanned stay in Seattle just because of a delay and a missed connection is not the end of the world. Our ability to traverse the country in six hours is priceless from any historical perspective. We decided to turn the day around and be grateful for what we had instead of being upset about what we didn’t. How lucky are we to be able to travel as freely as we do? So we made the best of the wait, and then things started to turn around. By sheer luck, the aircraft on the first delayed leg of the flight turned out to be the very same aircraft that was taking us on the second leg to Boston. Yes, we were late, but in fact, the second leg couldn’t leave without us! I can’t say that counting our blessings was responsible for pulling things back together, but perhaps the travel gods were amused and helped us out a bit. Gratitude is certainly part of our attitude. It is part of how we make the best of what looks like a bad situation and sometimes pull out an unexpected result. When we give up control and resort to frustration and self-pity, we are simply along for the ride. But when we take control of the things that we can and make the best of the situation, we are aiming for a much better outcome. Practice gratitude... welcome happiness.
"When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves."
- Viktor E. Frankl