Acrophobia

I am typing now from my room, seeing as we have not left for the airport yet. I'm pretty much ready, so I've been spending the morning stalking the MIT admission blogs and consuming large quantities of caffeine(yum!).

The title of this entry may or may not explain itself, but allow me to elaborate. I'm afraid of heights. It wasn't always this way. I partially blame my fear on my father, but I feel bad for doing that. So instead, I blame it on the ski lift that gave my my first frightening experience.

My family and I had traveled upstate, and were staying at a friend's house. We all went to some fair type thing in the fall, at a mountain that was used for skiing in the Winter. Since there were lots of people, the ski lift was running, bringing people up to the top of the mountain. So my dad and I hopped on, and started our ascent.

I wasn't scared until we were about a fourth of the way through with the ride. The mountain was A LOT steeper than I had realized, and the severe vertigo began to set in. Even worse, there wasn't any snow, so the rough terrain was made even more obvious. I can't remember whether or not I started crying/kicking/screaming (I was young), but I know for a fact I practically ran off the lift when we finally got to the top. Oh, and I refused to take the lift back down.

So that's where my fear originated. I used to love plane rides, but now they just make me anxious to the point of near hyperventilation. I've decided that this plane ride will be different. I'm not going to go into it thinking "OH MY GOD I'M GOING TO DIE" as I normally do. Instead, I'm going to try and just sit back and enjoy the ride, appreciate the fact that it's even possible for us to use any form of air transport. I also have all six Star Wars episodes to entertain me in times of panic.

I've just received an announcement that we'll be leaving in 17 minutes. I should probably finish packing.

The manager of the bagel shop I work at decided it wasn't right for me to receive any sum of money that wasn't an interval of ten. So he gave me some extra money from the tip jar. Woohoo!