Flying home yesterday, once again the “airline” mixed up our seating arrangement and I was assigned an exit row while the other four members of my family were lovingly lined up eager to share mixed nuts, crushed pretzels and beg for ginger ale only to be told they could have water or become dehydrated. As parents, we agree, it’s always better to give the kids choices.
My seat-mate resembled a more feminine looking Weird Al Yankovic on first glance. He/she was on the tall side with crinkly curls, a mash-up of colours painted on his/her fingers, fluorescent sneakers. Not any particular shade—just exceptionally bright but surprisingly not distracting enough to draw me away from our conversation.
When Al smiled at me and cleared his/her throat, I knew I was in for one last adventure before returning home.
Al, or Alexa, was very forthcoming with his story. I too had a choice. I could either pretend I heard the baby squealing directly behind me (Chloe) and pretend I was bothered by the constant yanking of the tray table which felt like someone behind me (Hanna) was patting my back trying to induce a burp and I could even pretend I couldn’t hear the incessant whining about the health benefits of ginger ale.
Instead, I opted to ignore the back row back tappers and listen intently to Al’s story.
In just two short hours, I learned about his first trip to the beach in a bikini prior to having the full surgery. I learned how his two daughters had no judgement when they saw him mid transformation. I learned the Sabres are two points out of the play-offs when I quickly stopped him and reminded him if he wanted to sound more like a woman, he’d have to worry less about the point spread and more about a more subtle approach to footwear.
As we chatted, laughed, sipped our g-ales and learned more about Al’s journey, I realized how incredibly lucky I am to have such an amazing team behind me, with incredibly strong legs and vocals the Mini-Pops would be lucky to have.
We all have days when we feel like getting up for a 4:30am wake-up call seems too overwhelming to deal with. But if being denied a ginger ale is the biggest battle/challenge/judgement we’ll face that day, we need to consider ourselves incredibly lucky.
Thanks for talking to me today Al. I’ll be thinking of you and wishing you luck on Dec. 3rd.
