Has a stranger ever given you unsolicited feedback about your style or looks? I can never understand how someone would think this is acceptable behavior. I mean, can’t we just be who we are without other people having negative opinions about us?
Savannah Phillips is a mother from Oklahoma who, like many others, struggles with her self-image. And when she travels, Savannah tries sit alone on the plane so she doesn’t disturb them.
“I always try to sit in a row where I don’t have to sit next to anyone. I’m not the biggest person on the airplane, but I’m not the smallest. My worst nightmare is someone being uncomfortable because they have to sit next to me,” she writes on Facebook.
Recently, Savannah ended up next to someone on a plane — but she never could have imagined how painful it would be.
I am only sharing this story of what happened to me today in hopes that the person who stuck up for me will somehow be…
Posted by Savannah Phillips on Monday, May 14, 2018
The flight attendants had just started reviewing the plane’s safety features when Savannah Phillips saw the person seated next to her, a 60-year-old man, pick up his cell phone.
The man held his phone about 12 inches from Savannah, so she couldn’t help but see what he wrote. And to her horror, she realized it was about her.
“He proceeded to text someone that he was sitting next to ‘a smelly fatty.’ I don’t even know what the rest of his text said. I turned my head away as fast as I could. I was shocked and it was like confirmation of the negative things I think about myself on a daily basis,” Savannah writes on Facebook. ”Before I knew it, I could feel hot, salty tears coming down my face. I sat and cried silently.”
Posted by Savannah Phillips on Sunday, December 4, 2016
Savannah couldn’t read any more. She was extremely hurt, and planned on avoiding her seat mate for the rest of the flight.
But a man sitting behind them saw the whole thing and decided to stand up for the “smelly fatty” in the row ahead of him.
Suddenly, the man, whose name is Chase Irwin, got up and tapped Savannah’s seat mate on his shoulder.
“I need to talk to you,” Chase said to the rude stranger. “We are switching seats. Now.”
Chase confronted the stranger and said that he couldn’t believe how this person could sit there and write cruel messages about someone next to him. He also said that the man was heartless and should care more about others’ feelings.
The two men then switched seats and Chase sat next to Savannah. He saw that she was crying, gave her a hug and immediately tried to put her in a better mood.
“He encouraged me not to let that guy get to me and that everything was going to be fine,” Savannah writes on Facebook. She also says that they kept chatting during the rest of the flight, talking about family and work, among other things.
Savannah was so touched by Chase’s kind gesture that she wrote about it on Facebook after the flight. She calls Chase a hero and hopes that more people realize the importance of standing up for each other!
It’s so terrible how some people can behave sometimes — but I’m really glad that Chase said what he did and taught the stranger a lesson!
Share if you also think that Savannah is a beautiful woman who shouldn’t listen to that rude stranger’s insult!
