That last sentence is, of course, redundant. Getting a hundred and something people, and all their baggage (both mental and physical) settled into very tight quarters, with severe time constraints, by definition, is patience-testing.
A man watching all the commotion and ruffled feathers around me said: "Wow. How do you manage to stay so calm and pleasant through all of this?"
I have a million tools, techniques, and systems that I've learned through the years; anticipating what people will need, little jokes to lighten the mood, taking care of myself with enough sleep and water and food so I'm not the cranky one in the situation, and the list goes on and on.
But since we had so little time I said: "I keep two quotes in my pocket that help me."
"What are they?"
"The first one is: 'The world is full of nice people, if you can't find one, be one.'*"
Our conversation was interrupted by a woman screaming that there wasn't room above her seat for her bag. I went back to show her there was a completely empty overhead bin inches from 'hers', and let her know that it's all shared space so she's welcome to put hers there.
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Later in the flight the man asked about the other quote.
"That one says: "Patience is what you have when there are too many witnesses." **
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* by Nishan Panwar
** by Kathryn Flavin (As best I could tell.)
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