From June 3rd- June 5th I had a line up of three flights ahead of me to get home. I had a flight from Christchurch to Fiji. It was one of my shorter flights only 3 hours or so. Unfortunately even though I was in FIJI I didn’t get to go out because I was scared to miss my next flight and the sunset was beginning already so there was no point going out in the dark. I took a flight to the USA and that was a long flight about 14 hours or so and then from there I had a flight to Toronto. When I arrived in the USA though, the line ups were so long and not going by fast at all. I only had 2 hours to make it to my next flight gate which was all the way across the airport and I was stuck at customs. There was a form you had to fill out but since I wasn’t actually going to the USA just there for a stopover I didn’t think I needed one. But of course once I finally got up to a customs workers they said I needed one and they had no forms written in English left either, very helpful, thank you. Thankfully one of the other customs worker saw me looking around for one and waved me over, I waited until he was finished with the other person and then he looked at my passport and air tickets and said I didn’t need to fill a form out for my stopover. He was very nice to me fortunately and asked where I was coming from and I ended up telling him about my travels briefly. He said if his younger sister did anything like that at my age he would be terrified and not let her go, but he was also amazed I traveled by myself. After he finished up everything he gave me some directions to help me get to my gate. Since I was in the USA for security you have to remove your shoes as well which didn’t help my rushing situation. I was so annoyed to have to take the time to take my shoes off to just put them back on after, I was in a panic that I was going to miss my flight. At times I was speed walking/jogging because I was running out of time and my gate was far away. The whole experience in the USA airport made my anxiety go up and made me so stressed out but it would’ve helped if my stopover was longer than 2 hours. Thankfully I made it to my flight and I surprisingly wasn’t the last person to get on the plane so that made me feel better. I ended up getting a window seat and sat beside a girl and her grandma. We talked and they were both friendly. It was a long flight again so I watched a few movies and also tried to sleep. Nearing the end of our flight the girl and I talked some more and ended up exchanging our social media to keep up with each others lives.
I just couldn’t wait to get off that plane and go see my parents waiting for me in the arrivals area. Unfortunately I had some luggage issue and I couldn’t get my big backpack since it was still somewhere else other than here. It wasn’t a huge deal since they were able to just deliver it to my house as soon as it arrived at the airport, I was just happy to be back in Canada. I walked out of the gate and saw my parents standing there searching for me, and I just wanted to run to them. I remember thinking how annoying the ramp was, making me take a long route to get to them when all I wanted to do was hop over it and hug them. It felt so weird yet normal to see them. Once we were back together talking, it felt as though no time had past and that I never even left. We stopped for some dinner at a shawarma place I believe, I ended up having a chicken ceasar salad, which was amazing compared to airplane food.
It’s crazy to think I am now done my 5 months travelling alone and back home. Now the new adventure begins which is me trying to figure out what I want to do now…
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