Airplane Musings

Sitting on a plane for a long time can be tiring. I forgot how much energy it takes to not squirm, to attempt sleeping in a seated position, and -perhaps most importantly- to hold in all the contents of your bladder for hours on end.

I, thanks to the lovely Ms. Pykor, am sitting with plenty of room to stretch my legs in the exit row. Unfortunately for someone who is a bit obsessive-compulsive, I am sitting right in front of the bathroom. I have seen exactly how many people have gone in and out, how many people have stayed in for extended periods of time, and how many sweaty old guys have emerged. My bladder is killing me, but I believe the captain just said only 20 minutes til landing, so hell if I’m going in there.

All in all, I think I’ve handled the “goodbye” events of today quite well. I will admit to sobbing through security. It’s not that I’m scared per say, I know I can do it as I’ve navigated airports and such many times before as well as survived on my own for 3 years at college, it’s just never easy to leave the ones you love for an extended period of time. It’s weird to think for the first time ever when I get off this plane and leave the parking lot, there won’t be a familiar, loving face waiting to envelope me in their arms when I arrive to my destination. I’ve cried multiple times the duration of this flight seeing the image of my dad standing with his crossed arms watching me through security in my mind thinking I won’t see him on the other side of this adventure waiting with the same stance.

Okay, gotta turn of electronics. More later!
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Kk, I’m back now. I’m all unpacked and sitting at my desk at UCLA, contemplating taking a nap before our welcome reception tonight. But I wanted to finish my thoughts from earlier, because they were good, and I want to be able to recall everything from this trip when it’s all said and done.

So my next phrase before I was told to turn off my laptop was:

The Lord truly does work in mysterious ways. I know I’m not always the most steadfast in my faith as of late, but what happened today could only be explained as a sign for heaven.
I was seated next to a girl dressed slightly different (she had one of those weird hats on like Josh wore 24/7 when he got back from Germany) who I could tell was younger than me, but I wasn’t sure how much. I didn’t really say anything to her besides exchange pleasantries as I was still kind of going through my own feelings and schedule in my head, and she just launched into sentence after sentence after sentence about how excited she was to be going to California. I won’t lie, I was slightly annoyed at first. But as she kept talking and asking me why I was going I started to learn more about her. I asked her where she lived in Michigan and she said “Milford, but only for the past year. I’m actually from Germany. I’ve spent the entire last year here with a host family as an exchange student.” My mouth dropped and suddenly I was fully engaged in conversation with this girl. I found out everything, from how long it took her to speak fluent English (Josh, for reference, she said it only took 2 weeks to dream in English and 3 weeks to think in English…and she had studied English in Germany for 6 years…so I think you’ll be fine with your Spanish!) to how she survived an entire year with only 4 suitcases (God help me I still need more things and I’m only here for 8 weeks with 2 suitcases!) to how she’d always wanted to come to the US ever since she was a little girl and this past year was a dream come true for her. She was completely in love with our seasons…she said she’d never seen snow so beautiful before in her life and she appreciated how each season had a distinct feeling and you could physically see the changes happening (apparently it’s not like that in Germany and they only see snow 3 days a year). She was just coming to the close of her year here, her parents met her in New York a couple days ago (they wanted it to be like a movie, so they met in front of the Statue of Liberty instead of at the airport…how cool!) and from there they flew back to Detroit so her parents could meet her host family and now they are flying out west and they are going to visit California, Arizona, and the Grand Canyon for the next 2 weeks, then back to Washington D.C. for a couple days, and then she is going back home for good. She has been so well traveled since she has been here…she has gone all over to many different places, from New York to Chicago and more. She remarked at how big the United States of America is…she said in Europe you can visit another country in 3 hours and you’re kinda limited. Here we have all these states to go to and they are all so different and so far apart. Her eyes sparkled talking about going to see a Broadway show and so many things that just made me smile. Finally I asked her what year she was in school and she said “Junior” I said “College?” She said, “No, high school.” I blinked at her. This girl was only 2 years older than my youngest brother. Then she told me that she is going to have to repeat this past year of school again in Germany because they grade harder and none of the classes here count for the correct year in Germany. So this girl is going to graduate a year behind all of her friends back home. I said “wow, that kinda sucks.” She grinned and said, “It was so worth it.” She told me how her host family had become like another family to her and how she was going to miss her new “siblings” so much. And the friends she had made at school in show choir (she’s a soprano I, if anyone cares. Haha I thought that was interesting. But that’s me.) were all going to write her and stuff. Then she said what really hit home for me. “Saying goodbye to my family in Germany wasn’t nearly as hard as it was saying goodbye to everyone here. I always know I get to go back home and my family will be there and I will see them again. My family and friends here? Who knows if I’ll ever see them again.”

Basically, my point here is that the maturity of this girl struck home at just the right timing. As much as it is hard to leave home, you can always go back. And you can’t be afraid to go out and have new experiences and explore and take risks because they may be the most worthwhile things you’ve ever done.

It was definitely something I needed to hear right at that moment.

And just for the record, DTW is so much nicer than LAX.

That is all for now, as I’m exhausted. I want to be sociable tonight at our reception and my new roommate and suitemates, who all seem really nice and I’m excited to get to know, are talking about possibly going out tonight and exploring. And I want to be awake and ready to take that all in, as well as be fully coherent to get to know them as well.

But I will be updating again soon.

Love to you all back home!

<3