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A woman has shown off her perspective of the very first row on her plane while traveling.
Jess Smith took to TikTok to post a six-second video with text across the screen that read: “When you book row one as a treat but it turns into you facing the ENTIRE PLANE??”
“Never going to recover,” she echoed in the TikTok’s caption. Although her seat was at the front of the plane, her seats were facing the opposite direction of every other set of seats on the plane, so she could be seen by everyone and she could also see them.
Her video went on to receive more than 12 million views, with many people taking to the comments section to express how embarrassed they were just to watch Smith in this situation.
“I lowkey wanna do this just as exposure therapy. Like, there is literally NO choice but to face it and get through it,” one comment read while another commenter agreed, writing: “This would be good exposure therapy for my social anxiety.”
Other commenters explained that they would rather sit anywhere else on the plane to avoid being stuck in this situation.
“That’s my nightmare,” one comment read.
“I’d actually prefer to ride on the wing,” another person jokingly wrote in the comments.
“I would legit ask to get off and cancel my ticket. My anxiety could never,” a third commenter agreed.
Some commenters even came up with some suggestions to address the awkward situation and not make it seem as anxiety-inducing as commenters claimed it to be.
“I’d start giving a speech or something. ‘So you probably wonder why I’ve gathered you here today,’” one suggestion from the comments read.
“I would take out a pad of paper, stare at each person for several minutes then fiercely write notes, switching between giggle fits and angry scowls. If it’s going to be uncomfortable, I’m going down my way,” another person wrote.
“I would lock eye contact straight with someone in the first row bc if i’m suffering like they gonna suffer with me,” a similar suggestion read.
Other methods included not sitting in the seat at all, and instead sitting backwards to avoid being stared at, walking up and down the aisle for the entire flight, or sitting in the bathroom as much as possible.
This isn’t the only time a plane seat has gone viral on social media. Earlier this week, a woman refused to give up her assigned seat on an airplane for a mother and child to sit together.
She recalled the story in a Reddit post shared to the “Entitled People” subreddit, where she recalled a mother and son telling her that a flight attendant had put them into the seats she and her husband booked.
“I smile back and say we paid for these seats so we would like to sit there. She keeps smiling her stiff smile and points to other empty seats behind us and asks if we wouldn’t mind sitting in one of them since they are already settled and comfortable, would it even matter?” the Reddit post read.
Both parties continued to argue back and forth until the mother told her to stand in the aisle until everyone boarded and she might move then.
She refused to stand in the aisle and pleaded her case for why she should get the seats. “I would like the police to be able to identify our bodies by seat number in case the plane crashes and our families want to bury our remains,” she said.
