A Day Trip At The Airport

I am your pilot this morning, and I will be taking you to Newark, New Jersey. The flight will be about three hours. Sit back, relax and have a good flight. I looked to my left to see my parents on their phones, not paying attention to any of their surroundings. There was a long line of people in the aisle waiting to take their seats, each person pushing large suitcases. In the row across for us, Jack was sitting in the row seat listening to music. Since there was four of us Jack had to sit by himself with two other strangers but he didn’t mind. The engines suddenly started to roar as I started to get pushed gently back into my seat. The front of the plane started to rise from the ground and as soon as I noticed we were up in the air. I took a deep breathe as I took my backpack out under the seat. I grabbed my new book “Looking for Alaska” and began to read. One of my friends gave it to me as a going away gift because she knew I loved to read. After a while, my mind slowly started to drift off onto a whole different planet. I was still in shock that I just left all my friends and I was moving to New Jersey. The whole situation was not processing through my head and I thought that we were just going on vacation to New Jersey, and we were not actually about to live there. Even thinking about having to make new friends and joining a new soccer team sent chills down my body. I am always shy around new people and now I have to break out of my

I looked at myself at the mirror, drops of water coming out of my eyes like as if it was a rainy day in May. Hearing the news got me so upset and depressed. I sat outside and looked around the place that I have grown up and that meant a lot to me. When I heard that our family was moving to America I was not happy about that.I was angry with my family because I did not want to leave Ethiopia. I did not want to leave my friends and family in Ethiopia. It scared me that I had to leave my old life and start a new one. A month later, it was time to go the airport and get ready to go to the new country. I was nervous; my heartbeat got louder and louder as walked closer to the airport. As I bit my lip, my eyes were dancing to every corner, my legs were shaking, and my hands were sweating. I was sad that I was leaving the place that I called home and that I had to leave all my childhood memories. At the same time, I was excited because I always wondered what it felt like to move to a different country and adapt to a new world, culture, and language. At the airport, I was happy finally come face to face with the big white things that use to fly over my house. I was stunned to see how big they really were. All of the sudden my sadness turned into excitement and I could not wait to start a

I had never been on an airplane. My stomach felt like I had just eaten rotten fish and I was about to throw up. I was so excited to go, but at the same time I was scared because I had never been on a plane. We waited in the airport for at least an hour. Finally our flight was called, as I walked on the plane my heart was about to jump out of my skin. After the flight attendant had went through all the rules and we put our seat belts on the plane was going to take off. I thought the worst thing about the flight was taking off and landing. I didn?t like taking off and landing because my ears popped. Other than the fact that my ears popped taking off and landing the flight went smooth, we didn?t crash. When the plane landed, I couldn?t wait to stand on solid ground again.

Before we got on our plane we picked up some food and sodas. While eating we began to reminisce in the memories we had in ethiopia. We told our dad we wanted to stay. Holding back a tear he told us this was the best for us. We grabbed our orange sodas and got ready for our flight. I looked out the window looking at the city, all the lights made me think i was looking at what i thought was new york city. I looked out the window and shed a tear knowing i wouldn't be back for a while.

Right as I a walked out the airplane I heard unfamiliar language being spoken around me. People were buzzing around as my heart started to beat fast. My life started to change dramatically, then it struck me it was around 18 hours

It didn’t hit me this whole experience was real until I crossed the threshold of the departure bridge into the cabin. I was scared and I was nervous. Moving to New Zealand was easy. I was three and there was still time to make friends. This time, however, I would be walking into a classroom of kids that already have their friend groups sorted. I would also say excited but the other two emotions definitely overpowered the excitement I was feeling. My only knowledge of the house we were moving into was about an hour’s worth of a camcorder walkthrough from some relatives. It looked nice enough on video, but I was apprehensive as to what it looked like in real life. I’m not sure if it was because I had just spent 24 hours in either an airport or an airplane, but when we pulled up to the house I was amazed. I looked better than what the video portrayed and any nervousness I felt earlier melted away. I was excited to start a new chapter of my

Almost a decade has passed and yet, the daunting feeling of stepping off the plane, into the unknown remained. Thoughts rushed through my naïve mind, as the brisk breeze brushed my face.Where am I?Why am I here? Racing through the airport, I was overwhelmed as people paced past me, my mind filled with curiosity and my heart beating louder than a drum. Everything was new, the silence, the purity, the beauty.This new country seemed unrealistic to me, it felt like I was in a dream as I was introduced tonew things. Aspects I couldn’t understand as a little girl were all thrown at me in an instant, skin colours that I didn’t think existed, a new culture, and a new language which sounded like drivel. I slowly began to realize that this wasn’t a dream,

The very next week I was ready to experience what it’s like being in another country with different customs and culture. July 3 the day was finally here, I grabbed my suitcase and met with my grandma and we got ready for our flight. As I board the airplane, I had butterflies in my stomach. I think to myself “Wow this is really happening”. A few minutes past by and we take off. The take off was probably the greatest part of the flight, I wasn’t scared or nervous I was having so much fun. After 6-7 hours of being on a plane we finally land in Guatemala City. Leaving the airport everything gets my attention. Kids on the street playing soccer, buildings all next to each other, and color everywhere. I smell different foods from left to right, I'm amazed at everything, it's something I’ll never

On this morning we were just glad to not have been woken up to bugs crawling in our beds. What I was more excited about today, was our itinerary for the day. The first part of my morning consisted of sitting at the edge of the rocks journaling and enjoying the view from there. With the sun shining as bright as it was that morning, we decided to move under some shade to continue journaling. Under the shade by the kitchen the view of all the huts were also so surreal, I sat that just letting it click that I was in Swaziland miles away and getting to experience this.

It was April 3, 2015. While the wind danced around picking few leaves here and there along with itself, my spirit on the other hand, marked with unease and nervousness stood in stark contrast. It was time to board the airplane for United States of America; it was time to leave India, my birthplace as well as my home for 14 years. With hopes of achieving the American Dream, my family and I would board the airplane, oblivious to the opportunities as well as hardships and sacrifices which would follow. Although the journey might seem as a physical one - of around 15 hours, it was a moral journey of understanding new cultures, new ideas, new struggles.Nevertheless, it was a journey to understand the true beauty of the world.

Sitting on the plane alone, I wondered what the next three weeks would bring. The light hum of the plane’s engines seemed to go on forever and the dry stale air began to scratch the inside of my throat. My destination was The Netherlands, where the entirety of my family lives. Throughout my youth seeing my family was a rare occasion, once a year if we were lucky, but after my parents divorced, we stopped going altogether. It had been over eight years since I had last visited them and because of the many years of separation, I felt uneasy about it all. Throughout the flight I couldn’t help but to think to myself several questions like: What I might be able to learn and experience from these next three weeks? How I would feel when I would first arrive? And how different everything would be. Having been there only a

Never in my life did I think God would lead me to become a pastor. However, around the end of 2012, I really felt God calling me toward vocational ministry. I wasn’t really sure what that would look like in my life, and I struggled with God for a long time about the idea of giving up a “sure thing” with the army, for the unknown of serving in ministry. I just kept thinking, “Is this really what God is calling me to do?” This went on for quite a while. One night, in May 2014, God made it abundantly clear to me. My wife and I were attending the wedding of some close friends of ours. The pastor who was performing the ceremony was the pastor of the church my wife and I attended before I joined the military in 2010. After the ceremony, I was talking with him and mentioned that I was feeling like God was calling me into pastoral ministry.

The light to put our seatbelts on glowed as the captain spoke to us and flight attendants acted out safety instructions. At take-off my stomach was filled with butterflies, but I wasn't scared. My body was pushed into the seat but I pretended I was the captain of a fighter jet. When we were stable I discovered that flying wasn't that bad. And the ocean looked beautiful out the windows! I put on my CD player until the played the in-flight movie, Planet of the Apes. I didn't like it so I kept listening to my CD player all the way through dinner. I fell asleep but the sound of the captains voice woke me. He was telling us there was an hour left of the flight. Flight attendants asked us to stow away our bags and prepare for landing. Butterflies were fluttering in my stomach again as I anticipated the landing. I felt the plane lose

Though Kenya’s impoverished and underdeveloped conditions were certainly not highlighted in the film, I believe it is important to observe. These conditions are best displayed by the state of the primary school. In the film, students were forced to sit 5 students to a desk and were crammed into a tiny room. Moreover, the Kenyans were highly grateful for the concept of free education. This highly contrasts the state of American schools, which are typically well funded. Americans are used to the concept of free education, so much so, that people now desire free higher education. I believe this theme is important to note because it is the key difference between the Kenyan and American

My journey the day I left my home country in search of a better life was not as pleasurable or exciting as I expected. Although it was not a long flight, the accumulation of unexpected vicissitudes during the trip made my dream of traveling an absolute nightmare. Not only my sadness to be leaving my family behind, the uncertainty to fly alone and for the first time, or my inexperience with the procedures at the airport contributed to this calamity, but even my neighbor on the plane added his bit of sand in the affair. All this situation was such traumatic to me that I even considered never daring to fly again.