Note: This blog post was originally written as I left the U.S., but due to a variety of complications involving airport wi-fi (and several other things, as the post describes), it was not submitted as expected.
I’ll wait to write this blog until I’m waiting in the airport, I told myself all summer. It’ll probe all those anxious feelings while they’re at their peak and force out an eloquent start to my blog.
Well, that kind of happened, but nothing about the past twenty-four hours has been eloquent, and the anxiety I felt at the start of my journey has been elevated through a series of mishaps with no clear end in sight.
It all started on a dark and stormy day – yesterday, August 16, 2016 – with me holding back tears in MCO as I walked through a maze of stanchions and toward American airport security. I was leaving my friends and family for four months to study abroad at Lancaster University, but more immediately, I was leaving my mom and my girlfriend on the side with liquids larger than 3.4 fluid ounces, who had both come to the airport to say goodbye. We waved until we couldn’t see each other anymore in the swarm of travelers also awaiting their TSA discomfort.
Fast forward a little and I’m seated on a parked aircraft supposedly headed for Washington, D.C., where I’ll meet with one of my best friends and fellow study abroad student Micah, and fly to Manchester to get on a shuttle to Lancaster.
Fast forward a little and I’m still seated on a parked aircraft supposedly headed for Washington D.C., where I’ll rush across the airport to hopefully catch my connection with Micah.
Fast forward a little and I’m eating a packaged peanut butter and jelly sandwich from a Ruby Tuesday’s in the terminal, waiting for the lightning to stop.
By the time Micah was taking off for Manchester, I was just leaving Orlando for D.C. I still hadn’t written my blog post – I was too focused on rebooking my flights and tying up the brand-new loose ends in my travel plans. My anxiety over leaving for four-months had sizzled down into a slow-burning fear of losing my luggage in a foreign country and missing the first day of classes. At the second United customer service desk I visited in IAD, a frantic representative responded well to my exhausted smile and booked me on a flight to London – leaving in fifteen minutes.
I ran to the gate and somehow made it (along with a mysterious bird flying through the terminal, that, as far as I know, could have been a complete hallucination). The flight went by in a flash and next thing I knew, I was in London Heathrow airport rushing to make my next connection. Fortunately, a few people from the original flight had been booked along my same route. I followed them to the first security checkpoint, and that’s when yet another complication happened – the gate had closed. There was only half an hour between the flights booked at IAD, and I had officially missed enough connections to open up a sketchy online forum.
Now, I’m waiting for the next flight leaving in approximately forty-five minutes for Manchester to get my checked bag through British Airways.
Will it be there?
Is British Airways deceiving me?
Will I be seated next to another baby?
My guesses: no, probably not on purpose, and I really, really hope not.
Right now, I’m just glad I packed extra clothes on my carry on. Oh, and also that I have coffee.