"Jitters" -- A quaint understatement

I really hate the anxiety before a flight. The stress, the tension, the small array of worries that nip at my boot heels like hungry rats eying my toes as their next form of dinner... I want to be calm about this, and think of it as nothing particularly worrying. 

And I can't quite do it. 

Perhaps this is a conditioned response from the last year of stress. Perhaps this is my natural paranoia and lack of confidence causing me shudder, curl up into a feral little ball, and shut down completely. 

I wish I knew what to do about this...