Traveling home on a five hour flight recently, I had the misfortune of sitting in front of ?the chatty cheerleader'. She was talking to the male passenger sitting next to her. Now I have nothing against cheerleaders ? at a game they provide hours of entertainment for all the family, but this girl was right out of the T-Mobile commercial. You know the one? It's where the girl apparently speaks through her entire monthly minutes in one conversation.



So there I am, trying to sleep after a day's worth of long meetings, and like I said, it's a 5 hour flight. This girl would just not stop talking, even to take a breath. At first it was amusing, then it got irritating, and eventually I couldn't take any more.

I put my Bose noise cancelling headphones on and immediately they silenced the roar of the jet engines down to a mere whimper, but cheerleader girl seemed to be amplified even louder! Agggh! If only the headphones had a ?reduce cheerleader noise' setting - no such luck. After going through a range of emotions, most of which are unrepeatable here, I decided to try and look for the positive in all this.

I asked myself, what if I had been sitting next to the cheerleader, and she was chatting to me? In all honesty, I suspect that I would have humored her, I may have even enjoyed the conversation.

In hindsight I think I was overly tired. I always try and look for the good in people, and I encourage you to do the same. Usually you can find something, even in the worst of situations.

Never let a bad circumstance affect you beyond a day, make sure you clear your head and wake up in a positive frame of mind, ready to move on. I can laugh about the situation with the cheerleader now, and little did I know at the time that she would provide an instructive lesson for all of us.