This happened to me when I was eighteen years old, while on a gruelling fourteen hour flight to London. I don’t recall what the in-flight movie was, but I remember not being particularly interested by it. For all I knew, I had a long and boring flight ahead of me.
I ended up sitting beside a stranger — because of a problem regarding our ticket bookings — and that was a first for me. I wasn’t sure if I was meant to acknowledge their presence after take-off, or simply just keep to myself and stare forward for the whole flight.
The rest of my family were all up at the front of the plane, where snacks and beverages always seem to materialize miraculously. A few times before take-off, I heard my father and brother laughing about something up-front, but I wasn’t able to figure out what that was. This made me feel a little lonely, I guess. It sounded like it must have been funny.
But, after a couple hours of being in the air, I found myself glad to be sharing a stranger’s company at the back of the plane. *Lucky*, even.