Living My Life (with MS) - Take Flight

You cannot accuse the United States of being an egalitarian society. It took my trip delivering Liam to Orlando for that to sink in. Let me unpack that for you. I did five legs of a flight, stayed in two overpriced hotels, and took a ton of Ubers. 

As Liam kindly pointed out, my disability is my cheat code for getting through the airport. I'll give him that because it works and with that comes a myriad of assistance and assistants. What I become aware of is that these assistants were exclusively people of color. These are the people that wheel you around the airport from check-in, through security, from gate to gate, and on and off the plane. The extraordinary ones are cordial, friendly, helpful, pleasant, and damn right nice. 

Don't get it twisted, people see me getting wheeled around, getting first dibs through security, and on the plane first. Some are so callous to think "he's so lucky" and some are so stupid to think "I wish that was me" or "I wish I had it like that". Yeah, I said stupid. I would trade my disability in a heartbeat of a hummingbird to be able to stand in line for hours at a time or walk for miles. You don't know what a trip on a plane cost me, but I will break it down for you. 

Let's start the day. I need the early flight, so I can get up and out of the house for two main reasons. After my shower and getting dressed, I don't want to get hungry and want to eat. Also, everybody knows that the first pee after waking up can sustain you for hours if you're controlling liquid. We will revisit the rationale for this later. The other reason for the early flight is parking at the airport. People say, "But you got the handicap parking". It feels like everybody got one, so this isn't guaranteed. You still need to be the early bird. 

So, I get to the airport and find a decent parking spot. I still need to get to the ticket counter to check-in. People would say "You can do carry-on and just check in online". I will dig deeper into this at a different time, but for now, I will tell you that most airports don't have a service for people with disabilities. What you see is handled by the airlines. This means you have to check in with your airline before someone will assist you. I learned this the hard way in Orlando (MCO), but that's another story. 

Anyway, I get checked in and it’s smooth sailing from there on, right? Right. There are the looks. There are the jerks that don’t feel like they need to move out of the way. I haven’t experienced someone saying anything derogatory loud enough for me to hear them. Lord knows I would want that, which is why it hasn’t happened. It would go viral. 

Aside from the negative energy and general disdain for me and my disability, I have had moments where I experienced people who showed genuine empathy. You know when it's real. There's a lesson in this, but that's a different story. 

Back to my assistance through the airport. Those that know I don't want to be "this", those who know that whatever I "paid" ain't worth it, those that know I hurt, even if it's on the inside…(by the way, I'm wiping away tears before the flight attendant sees me, the plane is half empty. I can expound on this when I talk about Orlando, but I digress)…they make conversation, even if it's about nothing. They know that small talk can still be little gems that are priceless. I'm still a person. 

Those that know, will ask the million-dollar question on two occasions. Before getting to the gate for departure and right after you get off the plane. [dramatic pause for the aha moment] "Do you need me to stop at the restroom?" 

Not now, most of the time because I haven't had anything to drink for five hours. I'm just slowly dying of thirst. Why? Well, the cheaper seats are toward the middle of the plane, not close to the restroom. 

The funny thing is that when I select my seat, I am more concerned with having a connecting flight, which means that I might need to be close to the front. If I am traveling with others, then that gets factored in because Liam likes the window. 

To conclude this episode of "Tales from the street corner", walking on a plane that is carpeted and shaky to go pee, is Russian roulette. 

This episode is based on my personal experience and my perception. 

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