Thursday night, I was traveling home from Fargo, ND with two connecting flights. Fargo to Minneapolis went well, and then the delays began. My Minneapolis to Atlanta flight ended up being delayed by more than 90 minutes. Thankfully, I had a scheduled nearly two hour layover in Atlanta and felt confident I would make it home as long as that flight didn’t change.
Once our plane boarded in Minneapolis, I started to pay closer attention to the time. The minutes seemed to fly by as we waited to become airborne. It became apparent that my flight to New Orleans would already be boarding in Atlanta when we would be landing, and depending on which concourse I needed to get to, I became less and less confident I would make my final flight home.
As we landed, the minutes disappeared quickly and by the time we reached our gate to deplane, my flight home had already been boarding for 15 minutes leaving me less than 15 minutes to get to my gate and board before I would miss it. I jumped out of my aisle seat with everything in hand as soon as the captain turned out the seat belt signs, gaining me a 5 row head start to get off my current flight. I anxiously and politely waited for the other passengers to gather their belongings and exit the plane and then I hit the pavement, moving as quickly as I could.
9 minutes….I managed to deplane from concourse T, gate 9 and make my way to the train downstairs running down the escalator to barely jump on board as the doors were closing, then over to concourse A where I ran up the double-story escalator and down the hallway to gate 25. I made it in 9 minutes flat! And I could breathe….
Less than a year ago, that wouldn’t have been the case. I would have been out of breath before making it up the the main concourse. Less than a year ago, I couldn’t climb a single flight of stairs without having to stop and rest, catching my breath before moving again. I’m no athlete, however I am a woman who has seized control of my future by making changes to my lifestyle. I am vegan, I exercise for health and fitness, I can now climb the escalator steps, and I can make it to my gate under pressure in 9 minutes flat.
Brenda Tassava, VLCE is a vegan lifestyle coach and motivational speaker. She is the founder of Vegan Juju and she is the Principal Consultant at VetSupport.