Rare Air
Have you ever had an experience where you thought: This is an original experience. Few people in the world have actually ever experienced this.
Up here in the sky
What I am about to tell you might not have been an entirely original experience, however, for me, this had me smiling cheek to cheek. I had the opportunity to experience sitting as a passenger in the cockpit of a 767 Boeing. I sat there and I took a deep breath, not only to calm myself from the excitement. But I also thought to myself: Up here in the sky, I am breathing rare air. This is an exceptional experience, I thought. Once we landed and said our goodbyes, I thought: What now? My life just continues as usual? I need to ride this high! But then I realized, for some people this same experience comes around the block every week.
Normal, average?
I always wondered, what would it be like to set a world record? For the people who have achieved it, what do they do with their lives afterward? Do they go back to being, I hate to say it: Normal? Or my worst nightmare: Average? If we look at e.g. Olympian of 17years old, he spent his summer competing against the best of the best, but once summer was over, it was class as usual.
But that’s the thing: excellence and rare experiences are hidden in the smallest of occurrences. Researchers have found out that behind all the excellence in the world, there’s something very mundane to it for someone else.
In short: The mundanity of excellence.
Business as usual
The same way that for me it was a completely mind blowing event to sit next to the captain in a flight carrying hundreds of passengers. Something I will recount forever, but for the three pilots in there with me, it was business as usual. Cracking jokes with their colleagues between intercom conversations to the Tower, and thinking what they will have for dinner once they are home.
Everyday you wake up, you have the ability to go outside and take a breath.
That’s also rare air.
Because no one has lived the life that you lived.
Yours faithfully,
CJ Felicia.
© Lois Smit