airplanes are weird

I love flying in airplanes. But as I got on one recently my mind started spiraling, I guess caffeine hit or all the thoughts I had not let out all semester said “it’s my time to shine.” Here is the thing about airplanes: sleeping in them? How come we can freely and so openly allow ourselves to be so vulnerable we pass out like we have not slept in ages when we are in an airplane? Many of us are scared of sleeping over with friends ,partners, or anyone for the first time as you don’t want your sleep alter ego to embarrass you or what not, but we sit among tens of people in a plane and say fuck it, if I snore, talk or ?, I do, or perhaps we suddenly “forget” we do.

Like I said, I am an airplane lover, my question is why am I one, and why do a good amount of people also love them this much? I could go in a tangent and write a pros and cons list (being somewhat picky), and my cons list is definitely longer, but those pros overpower the numbers on the opposite side of the line. Maybe it’s not that airplanes are weird, but rather we as people are weird. When and how did we decide that falling asleep on a plane and everything that comes with was okay and normal. But falling asleep on a cab or public transportation is not quite seen that way. A public bus not really, but a shuttle bus is ok right? And if you’re in a car it almost feels like a formula you have to solve to decipher whether you can or cannot sleep in there. Whose car is it you are in, who are you in there with, where are you sitting, how long is the drive, etc.

I am not saying we should, but, why can’t one fall asleep at the mall or a bench at a park without getting looks, but when we see someone taking a nap at the beach we don’t look twice? And what about age? Why is a ~seven-year-old child asleep in public not necessarily seen as weird, but a nine-year-old child could be stared at? Who decided that a ~24 month difference was the turning point of it being “weird”? Society’s norms are all over the place.

Perhaps I was overthinking sleep, which turned into thinking about the norms and rules we follow simply for being human beings. But in my slight spiraling, I found myself in a place I have before, confused as to who decided these so called norms, and why I follow them when truly there is no force obliging me to do so. I think, it is us who are weird. Who carry ourselves with pride when we follow the imaginary railings guiding us through life when we stay within the boxes of norms. Going back to airplanes, maybe it is forgetting about all the fears associated with sleeping in front of others that allow us to get such wonderful rest while we are in the air (at least in my personal experience of airplane naps), and maybe we should try to do that more often. Sleep in airplanes, dance in public, wear what you want to wear, etc.

Society has “rules.” And rules are meant to be broken. Norms, normal, is all subjective. What may be weird to others may not be weird to one, and some of us may enjoy being those weird ones. Stepping out of imaginary boxes is such a relieving feeling, so maybe airplanes are not weird. People are weird. But weird is good and fun, and people should stay weird.