I should really hate flying.

按说我应该讨厌坐飞机。

Heights have always terrified me; I strongly dislike strangers invading my personal space; and enclosed places have never been my thing （a friend once woke up during a camping trip to the sound of me punching the side of my tent， shouting， “LEMME OUT！ LEMME OUT！”）.

身处高处总是让我惊恐万分；我极其不喜欢陌生人闯入我的私人空间；密闭场所也从来不是我爱待的地方（一位朋友曾在露营期间被我吵醒，因为听见我用拳头边砸帐篷侧面边大喊“放我出去！放我出去！”）。

But every time I travel， I find myself looking forward to the plane trip as much as the actual holiday. I seem to love most things about jetting around in an airborne metal tube that others hate： the squashed seats （cosy！）; the pre-packaged food （tiny cheese and biscuits， yay！）; the lengthy wait times （an opportunity to pop on1 a podcast and engage in some weird public hamstring stretches that nobody will judge me for！）.

但每一次去旅行，我都发现自己非常期待坐飞机——和对实际度假一样期待。坐在一根金属管子里在空中飞翔令别人厌恶，但我似乎非常喜欢其间大部分体验：狭小的座椅（舒适！）、预包装食品（小奶酪块和饼干，耶！）、漫长的等待时间（正好可以借机打开播客听听，在大庭广众之下用奇怪的动作拉拉腿筋，还不用担心别人因此对我评头论足！）。

People are prone to earnestly touching travellers’ shoulders and sympathetically asking， “How was the flight？” But even if the trip had some turbulence or my meal consisted of mystery slime sprinkled with unidentified green bits， my answer will almost always be， “Great！”. At times， when I’ve felt anxious in the lead-up2 to a trip， just knowing I was about to sit on a plane for a solid 24 hours has calmed me right down.

人们常常热情地拍拍旅行者的肩膀，同情地问：“旅途还好吧？”不过，即便途中遇到气流颠簸，或者我的餐食里淌着神秘黏液，上面撒着不知道是什么东西的绿色碎屑，我的回答也几乎总是：“棒极了！”有时，旅行前我会焦虑，可一旦意识到自己将坐上整整24小时的飞机，我马上就能平静下来。