{"id":9604,"date":"2018-11-13T09:00:12","date_gmt":"2018-11-13T14:00:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/progressions.prsa.org\/?p=9604"},"modified":"2018-11-10T13:28:45","modified_gmt":"2018-11-10T18:28:45","slug":"the-feeling-of-relief-prssanc-2018","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/progressions.prsa.org\/index.php\/2018\/11\/13\/the-feeling-of-relief-prssanc-2018\/","title":{"rendered":"The Feeling of Relief; PRSSANC 2018"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cMake sure you pray before and after you get off the plane. And don\u2019t forget to call me as soon as you land!\u201d That was the statement my mother said to me as I boarded my third flight. I can\u2019t begin to explain the feeling of nervousness and anxiousness that overwhelmed my body. It\u2019s the same feeling I get every time I board a plane. In my almost 21 years of living, who would have thought that a once shy boy would conquer a long-standing fear.<\/p>\n

I woke up early that morning, freshened up and fumbled through my closet to find the most comfortable outfit. My sister previously suggested that I wear something that I could easily slip off, due to check in at TSA. I followed her advice and wore a nice pair of jeans, my Birkenstock sandals and my orange Honors College t-shirt. I called it the \u201ctypical airplane outfit.\u201d After deciphering what to wear, I packed my car and drove to the airport. It felt like a few centuries before I arrived but I endured the drive. I was just excited that I got there on time. Being that it was my third time flying, I wanted to be precautious at the airport.<\/p>\n

After arriving at the airport, I was surprised to see that there weren\u2019t many people there. I imagined that it would be full of people hustling and bustling to get to their terminal but a calming silence filled the atmosphere. I checked in with TSA and I sadly waved my mother goodbye. She really wanted to see me off on the plane but because she wasn\u2019t flying, she couldn\u2019t do so. I sat at my terminal gate for about 30 minutes until a middle-aged woman came to the desk and announced that it was time to board the flight. She called us by our seating area and I was grateful to be in the first group. I clutched my bag, yanked out my headphones and marched onto the plane. You would\u2019ve thought I was the president of the U.S. with all the confidence I had. I may have appeared fearless but on the inside, my knees were knocking and my teeth were trembling in agony. The flight attendant went through a plethora of instructions and the airplane began slowly moving. Let\u2019s just say at this point I was pretty nervous. Well, really <\/em>nervous!<\/p>\n

I was a little relieved as we elevated in the sky but at the same time, I was still nervous as ever! I\u2019m not a frequent flyer so every time I board a plane, my emotions begin to invade my mind. Though my fears wanted to overtake my judgment, I actually discovered that flying is very soothing. Aside from the constant ear popping, I loved every minute of being in the air. When I got off the airplane, I was greeted by the beautiful city of Austin, TX! It felt like immediate joy was in the air of the airport. I couldn\u2019t wait to see what the PRSSA National Conference had in store for me! I encourage everyone to fly safely and don\u2019t forget to remain calm in any situation that you\u2019re fearful of. You may never know the outcome but it\u2019s always good to conquer the things that you fear. In the end, it just proves that you are capable of any and everything you set out to achieve!<\/p>\n

–<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Deontre\u2019 McCray is an undergraduate student at Claflin University in Orangeburg, South Carolina. He was a recipient of the PRSA Travel Grant to attend the 2018 PRSSA National Conference in Austin, Texas.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cMake sure you pray before and after you get off the plane. And don\u2019t forget to call me as soon as you land!\u201d That was the statement my mother said to me as I boarded my third flight. I can\u2019t begin to explain the feeling of nervousness and anxiousness that overwhelmed my body. It\u2019s the same feeling I get every […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":26,"featured_media":9360,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2895],"tags":[27,2219,1081,15,2991],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/progressions.prsa.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9604"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/progressions.prsa.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/progressions.prsa.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/progressions.prsa.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/26"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/progressions.prsa.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9604"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/progressions.prsa.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9604\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9607,"href":"https:\/\/progressions.prsa.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9604\/revisions\/9607"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/progressions.prsa.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9360"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/progressions.prsa.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9604"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/progressions.prsa.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9604"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/progressions.prsa.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9604"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}