Today was the day I left for New
Zealand.
First stop: Detroit airport. Although this wasn’t the first time I had ever flown … it was the first time that I’ve gone on my OWN (dun dun dun).... honestly, this is the first time I'll really REMEMBER flying.
I said my dramatic goodbyes to my mom and her friend who came for moral support and waited in the security lines for 45 minutes…. Then had to come back and say my dramatic goodbyes AGAIN.
(Whoops... forgot to check my bag first. I was surrounded by women who felt they were entitled to get to the front of the line… who were bragging about how they “Fly ALLL the time” and none of them said anything to me. The poor, pathetic girl, with a GIANT bag that obviously had to be checked… NOTHING... you suck lady)
The woman at the security/bag searching station was like “um, this is more than 3 oz. and I happily said… “I know, I checked it”… Yep. I’m dumb. But I’ve learned… I think. Hopefully?
First stop: Detroit airport. Although this wasn’t the first time I had ever flown … it was the first time that I’ve gone on my OWN (dun dun dun).... honestly, this is the first time I'll really REMEMBER flying.
I said my dramatic goodbyes to my mom and her friend who came for moral support and waited in the security lines for 45 minutes…. Then had to come back and say my dramatic goodbyes AGAIN.
(Whoops... forgot to check my bag first. I was surrounded by women who felt they were entitled to get to the front of the line… who were bragging about how they “Fly ALLL the time” and none of them said anything to me. The poor, pathetic girl, with a GIANT bag that obviously had to be checked… NOTHING... you suck lady)
The woman at the security/bag searching station was like “um, this is more than 3 oz. and I happily said… “I know, I checked it”… Yep. I’m dumb. But I’ve learned… I think. Hopefully?
(that's how she looked at me...)
When I finally got on the plane, I sat next to an adorable little couple who
was travelling to Vegas . It was the
mans 80th birthday. They know
how to PARTY. I guess they were staying
in the Luxor (I think? Whatever the
pyramid is) JEALOUS...
Sidenote: As soon as we sat down (they
let me trade them for the window seat), the cute older woman flagged down out
of the stewardesses and asked for water for her “MOTION SICKNESS” pill. Uh AWESOME right? Then, she found the little puke bag in the
back of the seat in front of here and said “oh, they knew I was sitting here”.
… great. First time flying and I’m
sitting next to Spew-McGee here.
Mehh. Well folks.
Guess what happened? Nothing. Woo.
The flight was absolutely beautiful. I
feel like I’ve been missing out on so much in our country. Mountains for example. ARE YOU KIDDING ME? Mountains are AMAZINGLY beautiful… even more
so from above… actually no. They’re even more
beautiful on the ground. Trust me. I wouldn’t lie to you. Serious tearing up moments happened the ENTIRE flight.
Then. .. I got to:
VEGAS.
I was going to play the slot machines. But I didn’t.
Good story. The end.
You want to
know why? Because I plan on going BACK. It’s completely surrounded by mountains in
the distance. ARE YOU KIDDING ME? Ab-so-lutely gorgeous. I can’t even begin to describe how much I
love seeing mountains in the distance. (can you tell I like mountains?)
The airport was easy to navigate and I found my flight easily. Thankfully.
I also found a charging station for my phone. The fuse was broken. But a nice man showed me his "secret" hiding spot (this sounds much dirtier than it is)
and I was able get my phone to a level that wouldn’t screw me when I got to LA
(had to get in contact with someone… not being able to= not good).
The flight from Vegas to LA was extremely short. I felt like as soon as we took off… we were
told to buckle our seatbelts because we were descending. I’m okay with that. I sat next to a woman who was visiting family and surpiring her mother
for mothers day with the rest of her brothers and sisters. Very pleasant.
Then....
Los Angeles.
OH MY GOSH… once again, I’m amazed by the
beauty I’ve been missing out on. The
weather, the atmosphere…. Everything. My
luggage was easily found… and then Johnny and Casey picked me up for our campus
tour at LMU
Let me explain something to you. I woke
up at 3:30 am… and arrived in LA around 12:30 which felt like 3:30 to me. My day was JUST getting started.
LMU
Johnny set up a campus visit with his undergrad institution Loyola Marymount
University. It’s a much smaller student
population… and richer too. DAMN. That campus was absolutely beautiful. The view from the campus was
indescribable. We took a campus tour,
learned about the history, and were able to meet with some of the student
affairs professionals and students at the instuttion. It was interesting to learn about a totally different institution
than I’m used to (LMU is a Jesuit institution).
Money wasn’t really an issue on this campus. It makes me wonder where Owens and BGSU could
be if, instead of worrying about finances, were had to worry about what flowers
we were going to plant next. LMU has a
name for itself and I’m sure recruitment isn’t an issue….and with such a
beautiful campus I can understand why.
The different professionals that we talked with all had a common
recommendation. To travel. To work and go to school in a place that is
outside of your comfort zone. In an
ideal world… in my ideal world… maybe it could happen. My priority is family and those I love. I need to be around them. If I had made the decision to be far away for
undergrad… I don’t know if I could have been there for my father and grandfather's funeral or been able to see him or my grandfather
when they got sick. I don’t think I
could forgive myself something like that happened and I couldn’t have been
there. The last time I spoke with (well... to) my father was 30 minutes before he passed away. I got there right after. If I lived any further, I wouldn't have seen him as HIM to say my final goodbyes. Nothing, in my mind trumps that.
<3
So... traveling it is… maybe it’s not
“enough” in some peoples eyes… but for me… those are my priorities. I have never really felt bad for having those
priorities until now. Maybe I am missing
out? I like to think that it’s what
you make of the experiences that you do have.
Being somewhere else requires money that I don’t have. Why leave a place that I’m perfectly happy,
when I can still travel right? Maybe I’m
missing out on some really important details. Who knows....
______
After our campus visit… that included FREE lunch. WOO. We went to Santa Monica Pier and the Playa
Del Rey… Yeah… I touched the Pacific Ocean.
No big deal. We also drove by
Abbot Kinney walked around 3rd
street Promenade.
Then… It was off to New Zealand at 9:30pm for a 13 hour flight… which was
really like 12:30am in Toledo. I was
basically awake for 24 hours. The flight
there was AMAZING compared to Spirit Airlines.
There was a screen to watch movies, we could also track our flight and
see exactly where we were over the ocean.
I sat by a younger couple… whom I fount our as we were getting OFF the
plane, that were FROM New Zealand (One went to Otago and the other to
Univeristy of Auckland… saweet)
The flight was long but much more comfortable than I was expecting. Flying in to New Zealand was
un-freaking-real. It looked like one of
those miniature models that artists create….
It was so GREEN… absolutely breathtaking. I couldn’t stop looking out the window. I cannot believe I’m even here. I seriously can’t believe it. AH. I think I’m in heaven on earth.
Oh, and a little "FYI". Saturday happened somewhere in there... yeah, we basically lost 1 day... we gained it back when we flew back. weird.
Wow. That was long. ... .. .. .. . ..
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