When life hands you a barrel roll...

Yeah you heard me. When life hands you a barrel roll... you say YEE HAW!

I had one of the most amazing experiences of my life last Friday. There was an airshow that came through town over the weekend. The company that I work for was sponsoring it so a few of us got to go "ride in an airplane" on Friday. So we walk onto the air strip all bushy eyed and bright tailed... wait, I got that wrong. Anyways, we get to ride in the T6 WWII Aeroshell planes. We approach the pilots and I looked at their chest (get your mind out of the gutter). Right there on the right side of their uniform is a badge that says, "Aeroshell Aerobatics Team".

That's strange. Oh well, they must have earned that in boy scouts.

We introduce ourselves to the pilots and we crawl.. yes crawl... into our planes. Now, I grew up flying with my father in his biplane so I was not scared of this joyride. We took off, things were all as it should be. I was able to gaze down at the ground and really soak in the experience. I felt peace wash over me. Then over my little radio I hear the pilot say, "Hold on girl, the tricks are about to start."

I'm sorry, what now?

"The tricks, hold on."

The next thing I know the plane starts to nose dive towards the ground only to immediately pull back up and... wait for it.... FLIP UPSIDE DOWN!!!

I did not get the memo that we would be doing air tricks. We were flipping, doing log rolls around each other, the three planes were freakishly close, and every time I thought we were evenly leveled, we would do another flip or roll.

My brain hurt. I was unprepared but you know what, in the middle of that first flip I was given a choice. I could vomit... believe me it was an option, the sushi I had for lunch was a terrible idea. Or, I could yell YEE HAWWWW and enjoy every minute. I decided to holler YEEE HAWWW at the top of my lungs several times over. I was laughing hysterically because I thought we were going on a quiet little flight over my hometown when unbeknownst to me, I was a part of an aerobatics airshow. I loved it.

Life is that way. We can choose to roll with the punches and ride whatever crazy ride life has thrown at us OR we could live in fear of losing control. Lets embrace this lack of control shall we? When life hands you a barrel roll...

That's me!