Sitting across the aisle from a little girl of about five or six years old, I was privileged to overhear her commentary on the excitement of taking off in a plane. As soon as we became airborne, the little girl looked gleefully at her mother and even smaller sister, and past them out the window.

‘We’re flying!’, she exclaimed. ‘I can see the world! I’m not scared at all! It’s pretty out there! Wheeee!’

I know that’s exactly what she said, because I made a note of it in my phone straightaway. I didn’t want to forget any of it.

What a gift! To see this experience through the eyes of a little child was an absolute joy. It was my ninth take-off within twelve days, whereas she was, I presume, a first-time flyer, and her sense of wonder was a healthy corrective to any feeling I might have had of being ‘over it’. My accumulated irritation about airports and queues and security checks melted away.

I thought this gem was too good to keep to myself, so I decided to write a blog post about it, and think about every piece of wisdom that little girl unwittingly shared with me.

We’re flying!

It’s so easy to forget how incredible this fact is. Humans fly. They can leap whole continents in a single medium-haul flight. They can cross the globe in less than a day.

In this golden age of air travel, it has never been easier or cheaper to move from country to country – at least for us economy-class flyers.  The little girl I overheard was flying with her family from the Philippines to Hong Kong. I was taking the same flight as part of a rather convoluted route back to Australia.

When we landed in Hong Kong, I decided – armed with the enthusiasm of that small fellow traveller – to treat my unwanted stop as an adventure. I’d be in the People’s Republic of China for two hours. Amazing! Sure, I’d just be in transit and wouldn’t leave the airport, but still, it was a chance to glimpse another culture, however briefly.

I can see the world!

With the skies as our oceans, we can navigate the world like the explorers of old.

Did you ever stand, dazed with possibility, in front of a departure board in a European rail station, looking at the incredible array of possible destinations? Coming from an island-nation, as a young traveller in Europe I found it mind-blowing that a short train-ride could whisk me away to so many different countries.

Now, late-night sessions on Wotif have the same effect. Look at all those places we can go! And if you don’t mind using a budget airline or travelling economy class, the world really is your not-too-expensive oyster.

Recently, my daughter and I caught a Ryanair flight from Bulgaria to Spain. The plane was filled with young Bulgarians in a state of high excitement. The freedom and the capacity to travel were not things they took for granted, and nor should we.

I’m not scared at all!

I actually find flying pretty scary. That’s why I don’t sit by the window anymore. I don’t want to think about the fact that we’re rattling around at high altitude in a small metal container. But I won’t let my fear get in the way of my flying.

Travel in general can be a bit scary too, especially if your sense of direction is as bad as mine. Map-reading and way-finding are hard for me and I often get lost. I find constantly interacting with strangers hard too. And dealing with foreign languages. Not being sure if you understand or are understood can be scary. But that’s no reason not to try.

It’s pretty out there!

Anyone who reacts like that to an aerial view of Manila Airport has an amazing capacity to find beauty anywhere, so I take my hat off to my young philosopher-friend.

But overall, she’s right – it is pretty out there. So much of the world is still breathtakingly beautiful, and we haven’t messed it all up yet. So, let’s try not to mess up any more of it, and let’s appreciate the beauty that somehow, incredibly, endures.

When I look at my photo library for the last three years, I’m overwhelmed by the extravagant loveliness of the places I’ve been lucky enough to see. The colours, the light – it sure is pretty out there.

Wheeee!

Let’s go, then – there’s so much to discover. And thank you, small girl from Manila, for reminding me what travel is all about: conquering fear, embracing beauty, and keeping a sense of wonder.