On Frustration
This isn't my own frustration I'm speaking of here.-- United 570 climb to 1-5-000 and proceed to DuffyI'm sitting on the last leg of the last trip out to Foster City: the flight from ORD to CLE.-- United 570 climb to 230 and contact Cleveland Center.The flight is slightly underbooked. I'm in a window seat and there's an empty seat between me and the guy who is feeling the frustration.-- Cleveland Center this is United 570-- United 570 Proceed and maintain 240His frustration: the person in front of reclined their seat.As he was playing some game on his phone the seat started coming back. I watched as his blood pressure went up at least 20 points.When in a situation that you can change something, it's imperative that you do so to ease your frustration. When you can't... take a deep breath and assess the situation.You're uncomfortable. Is anything really bad going on though? CanIf you can't make a change, you have no choice but to accept the situation. You can't, for instance, make the plane land. Well, I suppose you could but you probably don't want to get arrested.-- United 570 Descend to 230 and turn to 70Now, I'm sure plenty of people would agree that I don't take that advice at times. I should. Seeing someone else do the whining is like looking in a mirror. It forces a bit of self-recognition.-- United 570 Cross IMEZ at 1-0-000What you can do is make note of what you can in the future. I'm sitting two seats over with the lady in front of me similarly reclined, but I'm typing away with my iPad. This would be an option for him in the future I suppose.-- United 570 have a good weekend, contact Cleveland Approach on 124.000By the way, on the two United Airlines flights I was just on, channel 9 of the in-flight entertainment is the cockpit radio. It's the most fun I've had on a flight in a long time.-- Cleveland approach this is United 570 at 1-0-000 we have delta.The key to all of this is to make sure that you know the difference. Sometimes you need to just take a deep breath and accept that you have hardships. It's the cost of being alive. No matter who you are, you'll be in a position to have life dump all over you.-- United 570, descend to 3000 turn left to 90. Contact when you get to SASCO.Sometimes you have the power to change things.Then do.