I woke up with the blaring sound of my alarm clock. The sky and the outer world from my bedroom window were pitch black.
The time: 3:00 a.m.
Our flight was set to take off at six. The only thing we needed to do was get dressed.
My mom and I had to reach the Raleigh-Durham airport (RDU) by 4PM. I put on a Formal, business formal, black loose pants and a shirt that went well with the pants. I then decided to put some light makeup on. I put light brown eyeshadow with some light lipstick to keep myself looking natural for the long journey ahead. By then, I had packed up the remainder of the toiletries and headed downstairs. Two of our parents were waiting. I felt like the whole world was asleep except for us; even my brother was sleeping.
Everything had been packed the day before, but it still felt like we had to rush. I crammed in my breakfast as my parents had a piping hot coffee. I couldn’t believe today had finally come; I was leaving for Canada to cover the para ice hockey world championship. A few weeks prior, I had been accepted to cover the event, and it felt like a dream come true. We had two flights scheduled. Our first one was from RDU to Toronto, where we had to wait to catch another plane to our final destination, Calgary, where we could watch the second semifinal of Eurovision on YouTube.
We then headed to the RDU airport. My dad’s car was a shiny blue color that glistened as cars passed us. I had butterflies in my stomach because I was so giddy. The flashing lights of passengers coming and going; a journey that has or will be worth all the money and power in the world. Most of the time I spent in the car, I listened to music from the world. Just imagining what the next day of watching would bring me. I was set to watch the semifinals and the medal games. We finally got to RDU.
Once we checked in, we went to security. The line was very long because security had yet to open for travelers. The line wrapped around the airport and was somewhat uni-circle, more like uni-rectangle, and you could not see where it started.
The line soon started to move, but not as fast as you would have thought, for waking up bright and early and being the first ones there. But that didn’t matter. We were finally at the front of the line, and you could see people from all over getting screened to go to their flights. We finally removed our shoes and put our phones, laptops and hats into bins. I went into the scanner. They then proceeded to take me aside like they usually do. Since T.S.A. deemed me adult enough to use the big scanner, I have been pulled over by the TSA, and I distinctly remember the first time I was pulled over. Me and my dad for going on a trip to Colorado to ski and I happened to start my period a day before the flight when I get my period, I usually have to wear a big nighttime pad with wings to be able to go anywhere without bleeding everywhere, and so my big diaper size pad was caught on the scanner, and so they had to pull me over because they knew that it was a pad and not cocaine, but they had to pull me over anyway and so that was the very first time I was pulled over so yeah. Once we were patted down, multiple makeup liquid products were thrown out because I’m still a young flyer. I’m not used to this; we went to our gate. While we waited, I decided to look at my phone just to pass the time.
Soon after, our small flight came. The plane was smaller than the usual plane we were flying with Air Canada, but it was still tiny; I had gotten priority loading because of my disability, and as soon as we got on the plane, it took off.
The first plane flight only took about an hour, during which I mainly listened to music. When we finally landed, we went from international to national flights to catch our final flight to Calgary. The early flight had left us hungry, so we decided to try a Canadian classic: Tim Horton’s. My mom didn’t understand why I wanted to go there and why I wanted to get coffee from there either, but we compromised we would get food from Tim Horton’s and coffee from Starbucks. The food from Tim Horton’s was pretty good, the wrap that I had was exactly what I needed. After we ate, we sat in our terminal. I decided to watch the second episode of The Amazing Digital Circus. It was about an hour until our flight was to board.
Before anyone Boarded, my mom and I Asked for Priority Boarding for my disability. And we got it. We then got called to get into the priority Loading, and of course as usual I got nervous Because I worry that even though I know I need it I am not disabled enough for the boarding Or people would judge me That I am not disabled I’m not. We sat down with no issue.
This flight was about 3 and a half hours, which would be the equivalent of RDU to the Denver international airport. The fact that I had so much time on my hands on the flight, I decided to watch an enormous amount of movies. I decided to watch Hotel Transylvania and a number of other movies such as Murderball for the millionth time, My spy, and way too many to count.
When we landed, we headed to immigration, where we went to a machine to declare ourselves to the country. We had some struggle here and there such as myself being too short for the camera to take a photo of me and also just not knowing how the machine works itself. After we finished, we handed out our papers and then immigration officer said to us have a great trip and the most Canadian accent I have ever heard. I thought it was so funny that the first person we heard coming out of the airport would be the most Canadian person ever and did the country choose to hire him just to stereotype the country or something. after that we went to rent a car, it didn’t take long, but I was mainly sitting on my luggage. We got the keys and then decided to drive to our hotel.
When we got to the hotel, it was a small place but had 12 stories, but you honestly couldn’t tell. Are Eurovision had started so I started to watch it mom checked it, and I had my headphones in, so I didn’t really know what was happening and then we headed up even then got to the 12th floor. My mom got out, but I was still busy watching my phone. The next thing I knew my phone had dropped through the slit shaft of the elevator, and it was gotten gone. I screamed.
