My Experience At An International Airport

In the months, weeks, and eventually days leading up to my flight to Germany the panic was gnawing away at me. Despite the fact that this wasn’t the first time I was venturing out without my parents or even my first time on a plane, it was my first time for a myriad of other experiences in my life. My first international adventure, my first time living with a family that wasn’t my own, and my first time being surrounded by people speaking a different language; all of which began with a simple decision to cross the threshold between the jet bridge and the plane.

Such exchange is great for stabilizing relations between countries and spreading ideas. When people are exposed to new ideas, thought processes, languages, beliefs, and overall fresh environments, it causes positive changes in the brain that can completely alter the way we think. As Mark Twain wrote, “travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow mindedness.” (Innocents Abroad)

Traveling can be enjoyable and frightening at the same time. Being from Honduras, my family would travel back in forth from the U.S. to Honduras every summer. Being able to experience living in two different cultures was a good experience and allowed for a more understanding approach of different societies and how the identity of the people living in those Society’s is unique.

Additionally, students can travel around the world to learn about new cultures. By traveling, students can pick up new skills and

As a military child my surrounding always changed before I could just settle in. And each environment I was in shaped me a different aspect of my life. In Florida I experience my first true exposure to diversity and the beauty that surrounds it. I was able to learn about all of these different cultures that I had never heard of when I lived in Minnesota. I was able to understand that even with all of the differences that at the end of the day people are people, we have hopes, dreams, aspirations, and fears. It's something that looking back now seems so intuitive but it's something that exposure helps cultivate. Additionally growing up in a Nigerian household while living in America forced me to understand to an extend what it was like for my parents who are both immigrants living in a country with a different culture.

Another thing that also got me interested in traveling and experiencing new things is my imagination. The thoughts and wonders that went through my head about the rest of the world and not just my little town made me most interested in traveling and seeing the different cultures and lives of others. My imagination was wandering most when i was on my international flight on the was to Costa Rica because I didn't really know what to

As soon as the door opened, the heat hit me. It was like putting a hot iron in front of my face. But it felt even worse as there was a slight wind which pushed the heat towards me. My body was surrounded in a blanket of heat and I even started to sweat slightly. My uncle told me to wait by the lift as he went to collect the car so I wouldn’t have to walk as far and drag my suitcase along. While I waited, I took time to look around at the surroundings. I could see mountains which stretched towards the clouds and the airport behind me. There were a vast number of people walking around from their flight looking drowsy and with no energy. The frequent red double-decker bus also came and a few planes flew above my head. I didn’t even have to look, but I could hear the planes departing and arriving. The planes all looked the same in the sky, big and white with some sort of logo. During the wait, I took a few steps to take away the cramp. Although I had trainers on, I could feel and see that the floor was new. The concrete looked

Lost my way in the Seattle airport was the first reason that made me felt uneasy. I had to get my luggage in order to take my flight to Salt Lake City. I was confused that time because I could not find the place for the luggage check-in to Salt Lake City; moving my head left to right to see if there was someone I could ask for help or there were anybody like me that did not know where to go, but people just passed by me quickly, and left myself standing there restlessly. After finally finished with the luggage, the next obstacle occurred: where is the boarding gate? I realized the limited time for boarding the next flight. So the departure terminal was now an athletic track for me because I started to run to. Luckily, I could take a deep breath to relax after running through the ‘athletic track’ and found the boarding gate.

Traveling internationally tends to reignite my awareness of how fortunate we, as Americans, are. The main reason is that Americans have the opportunity for more freedoms. These freedoms can be individual, political, religious, etc. with the list becoming almost endless. Freedom is a significant characteristic of the United States and the reason many people make sacrifices to live in the land of the free. However, freedom is not just achieved once. Freedoms can easily be taken away and we must continue to fight for our freedoms.

It whirlwinds by so fast your mind can barely process the motions, and now your surrounded by green, and brick, and people. They’re everywhere and you pause to get a breath, to ease you mounting panic. You keep walking. Upstairs now. How many flights was it? One or Two? This door or the next one?

The airport in Los Angeles was crawling with travelers, dragging their luggage and scurrying across the terminals like ants in a massive nest. Jackson, my nephew, had no idea that he was meeting in Los Angeles; he thought we would be meeting in Seattle, just as we usually did. I wondered if he would notice the palm trees and the stifling heat in the middle of December and know immediately. With these thoughts wandering my head, I sat impatiently by the terminal where his plane was supposed to land.

The first thing Goins talks about is traveling teaches you to live an adventurist life. This is true people can live more freely and explore the world while they are young. Goins said in his article that he hiked a Mayan ruin if someone were to do this when they are older they would have a more difficult time doing this compared to someone who is young. He also said that taking the risk of traveling well you’re young inspires other to step out of their fear and go travel. This is true people see their friends out traveling the world well they go to school or work every day and they wish they could be that person traveling and having fun. Seeing other people travel really inspires other to take that risk and travel 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

Opportunity to travel abroad: traveling to another country enables you to get a complete picture of the culture, it also helps to enhance your interpersonal skills as well as your communication skills and it enables you to appreciate new customs. (San Diego State University, n.d.)

Travelling is important as it can remove the unintended prejudice that individuals carry out rashly. Sometimes, people unconsciously treat others differently solely based on their own beliefs. Since their judgement is based only on opinion, therefore it may be inaccurate to use when addressing the persons around them. However, exploring the world may lessen your tendency to be prejudice as you will gain detailed insights to the way others think, the way others see, and the way others live. Thus, this will allow you to not make foolhardy assumptions when being in contact with a society or community as you will be more knowledgeable to understand why they are the way they are. Removing prejudice from our lifestyle is very important to us as open-thinkers as we often make many mistakes in the treatment of other human beings. Prejudice is an undesirable trait to possess because