We were on the plane, satisfied to be going home after 35 escape adventures in two countries. We settled in our seats and prepared for the eight-hour flight back over the pond to the U.S. The plane began increasing in speed down the runway and we would soon be airborne. Then we felt a strong jolt as the pilot slammed on the brakes and the plane began sliding sideways. We’ve learned a lot through our escape room adventures, and those lessons served us well in this situation. Remain calm in a potential emergency, that way your brain can logically respond. We waited patiently while the flight crew was taking care of whatever issue led us to abort the takeoff.

The plane ended up returning to the gate, escorted by fire personnel, and all the passengers were left to figure out on their own how to get on the next flight home. There were a lot of emotional outbursts, angry words, exchanged, and confusion among the passengers. Using our training as Escapeletes, we calmly found an area to sit down and called the customer service line to get flights out the next day. We were thankful to have learned so many lessons from our many escape room adventures about emotional intelligence and how to channel one’s emotions to be more productive in situations such as these. Hopefully you, too, are working on your emotional intelligence and self-awareness with intention. Perhaps it is through escape room adventures as well. If not, why not find a similar fun way to work on yourself?