‘So I face this New Year excited and scared, but I know I will feel triumphant – and my wallet will be happy – if this is one resolution I make and do not break!’
I DON’T believe in New Year’s resolutions. I never have. But as my friend Mark quips, people change. And many times, they change because they have to and it turns out to be for the better.
So I’ve decided to give it the old college try.
I don’t like crowded places and enclosed spaces. I used to have a problem getting into crowded lifts, especially those where I would find myself standing way back and seeing only heads. Thankfully, I’ve more or less overcome that. But other instances of being among crowds I still couldn’t stand.
Many times, I’d attend a concert but not wait for the last song. In college, there were many concerts where my date and I would miss the encore because I’d be heading towards the exit halfway through what was supposed to be the last song. And the crowd would chant “more” and the artist would oblige. Lucky for me, most dates understood and didn’t care, but I think one or two took it against me (ha-ha). You see, I didn’t want to get caught in the rush for the exits.
At its worst, I’d get panic attacks in the middle of traffic while sitting at the wheel of the Ford Expedition that my previous employer assigned to me. How silly is it to feel “trapped” inside a Ford Expedition???!
And so, for years, I’ve always made it a “habit” to book myself a seat in business class when I’d travel on personal trips because it was my way of avoiding the rush of people getting into and (worse) out of the plane. Especially a single aisle on an Airbus A320, A220, or a Boeing 737. This meant counting up two or three times the money required for an economy seat – a fortune that could be spent elsewhere like at an outlet mall, for example.
But this is where the challenge of my New Year’s resolution comes in.
First: I’ll be retiring soon. Well, by 2027 to be exact. And that will mean no more company trips that allow me to fly
Business. And goodbye too to the monthly salary that pays for the personal trips.
Second, I heard my dad’s words when he once noticed I was backing out of entering a full lift: face your fears to conquer them, he told me as he urged me to join him inside. He was right, of course. Many times, our fears get the better of us because we let them, and the reason why over time I’ve been able to overcome my fear of packed elevators is because I’ve taken his advice. I guess I need to take heed of his words as well when it comes to other situations.
And finally, there’s the inspiration I get from people I know who are so rich they can buy the whole plane (or every seat for sale) but have this policy of taking economy class for flights of less than four hours duration. Which means flights to Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, Cambodia and Vietnam, Hong Kong and Taiwan. Very practical, yes?
So that’s my New Year’s resolution, which I’ve made after giving it so much thought and marshaling every ounce of resolve I have in my body: from now on it’s economy for me for flights less than four hours (with two exceptions because I’ve already paid for my flights to Bangkok and Hong Kong later this year).
So I face this New Year excited and scared, but I know I will feel triumphant – and my wallet will be happy – if this is one resolution I make and do not break!
