FWF (Flying While Fat)

Photo taken by the author from the plane

I’m in a first class window seat. Flying “economy” means we buy three seats and recently we learned that Delta first class isn’t a whole lot more expensive. Now, I want to be very upfront about something. I’m incredibly privileged to be able to have three paid seats, let alone be in first class. It’s thanks to my incredibly hard working husband that this is an option at all, and I’m so grateful to have him, for this and a million other reasons.

That privilege being acknowledged, now I need to rant and vent. I’m in the front row, which seemed like a good idea at the time but the floor by the window seat curves and there isn’t as much legroom as you get if you sit behind someone and slide your feet under the seat in front of you.

Then there’s the reality that a tray table will never fit over my stomach. My husband is able to use his, and on the way out we tried to share it for our meals. It was awkward and impractical. He decided not to eat on the way home (though I said I wouldn’t so he could). And, so the plan was that I would get my meal and share it with him, since I knew I wouldn’t be able to eat it all. But after having to stand for two hours in an insanely crowded terminal (because the seats were so tiny the armrests were digging into my hips and I’ll have bruises just from the 20 minutes I did sit), my social anxiety got the better of me. I panicked and asked to have a…