9. Very rough handling

I was 15 or 16 and flying across the country for the first time by myself. My mom had wanted to treat me, so she splurged and bought me a ticket with extra leg room. Because of that, I got one of the front seats with no storage room. So the “nice” fight attendant put my backpack on the overhead compartment and said she would get it for me when we reached altitude.

We hit the needed height and I asked for my backpack. I had brought my computer, some books, and some snacks with me. Well, she opens the overhead compartment then another passenger tries to ask her a question while she is fumbling around to find my bag. She ends up dropping my bag, it bounced off the shoulder of another passenger and then slammed into the floor. Then she picked it up and tossed it in my general direction.

I didn’t know it until I got home some six hours later but that fall had smashed the internal components of my computer. The disk drive didn’t work any more and neither did the fan. I ended up having to buy a new computer.