Remembering.. That Time I Accepted Death.

Accepting death is an interesting place to be. Hmm. Let me explain. Today I was reading this New York Times Article entitled Happy Days and it made me reflect on one of the most eventful plane rides of my life....

I was in South Africa studying abroad during my junior year of college when a good friend and I decided to take a trip to Johannesburg. We were studying at Stellenbosch University, a university not too far from Capetown in the town of Stellenbosch (surprise! surprise!). We had heard horror stories about Johhanesburg so naturally we were pretty rattled before we even stepped foot off of the plane. People kept telling us about how absolutely dangerous it was. Our stay in Johannesburg, thankfully, turned out to be amazing and crime free. The excitement began as soon as we strapped in and took off on our plane toward home....

It was storming and I remember our pilot alerting us to this right before we took off. I had flown many many time in all kind of weather so I was not alarmed in any way. I actually love to fly.So anyway, we took off and was in the sky for all of 5 minutes when the turbulence started. It went from 0 to 80 in matters of seconds. I had felt turbulence before but this was downright SCARY! It becomes a little mixed up and confusing in my head after this but what I do remember is the plane essentially nose-diving, my friend and I grabbing each others arms and me quickly reflecting on my life, ultimately ACCEPTING DEATH. I can remember thinking "Wow, my life is about to end. At least I'll die in South Africa. OMG, sex. I hope when I crash I die right away and that I do not burn...slowly". I seriously remember having every single one of those thoughts. I remember my friend telling me to pray. And I did. I said a quick prayer and waited to go to Jesus. No joke....

Our stewardess broke her leg in the process and the turbulence eventually lessened but it was enough that every single person on the plane was frazzled. I'll never forget the screams from people and cries from babies.. as we well, "crashed" I can like still see it now. Thankfully, my friend and I both lived to tell the tale but geeez were we shaken up. Every time I think about those moments that day on that plane I have to take a moment to reflect. There must be a reason we lived and I'm glad that reason exists. Love you Rogeeee! Whew. Happy living!