Prequel 2: My Whole life in 1 suitcase and 1 carry-on (and a purse)

This is what has become of the mess that I cleaned up. Once it was over at 1:00 in the morning, I was ready to leave. I was ready for the adventure. I got up at 4:30 in the morning for my 7:30 flight (Remember: 2 hours before for international flights) and got ready, said goodbye to my sisters and headed to the airport with my parents. My luggage ended up to be 51 ½ lbs but the nice United porter didn’t charge me for it. My parents gave me their blessings and I was off to security check and ultimately to the gates where I waited for 1 ½ hour before boarding. (United Airlines wasn’t bad. Even if I wasn’t used to flying in it, they were very good with arriving on time. Our plane arrived about 10 minutes earlier than it was scheduled and the service wasn’t too bad either.)

My layover in Dulles airport was three hours long. At first, I was fine. I was bored but I was relaxed. I was like this until about one hour before boarding and I heard the British accents around me. I was amused, but then it dawned to me: I was going to be hearing this for 105 days and I’m going to be away from what I have been used to for the past 6 years that my family and I have lived in the United States. I needed to calm down. I regulated my breathing because I felt like I was slightly hyperventilating. I was starting to doubt again. And then I crumbled trying to keep Zen myself and called a friend and I eased up (Crystal, thank you so much for relaxing me, for making me see why I did this again.) After this conversation, I met this lady who was en route to London but ultimately going to Scotland for a hiking trip. She had a slight British accent and she asked me about my trip. I told her I was studying in Oxford and explained the program to her. We ended up being in the same seating group so we boarded together. However, I sat further away from her and she wished me luck just in case we didn’t see each other again. When I got to my seat and settled myself, I took a deep breath and looked around. I told myself, “This is it. This is really it. I can do this. I’m a trooper.” Calmed me for a bit but it was not enough.

Somewhere between Dulles and London, I said a prayer and asked God to make me stronger. I know he won’t leave me alone but I need more strength in order to calm myself down. I needed to believe in myself, to not wallow in the doubt, the fear, the what-ifs. With that, I was able to ease up and took the first of many 30 minute to hour long naps I took in the flight.