As an infant on my mother’s hips at the airport it never crossed my mind that things in my life were certainly never going to be the same in the months to come. My very first time at the airport was with my mom when I was eleven days old, and we were able to walk right up to my grandma’s gate to meet her. It was the very first time she met me. The next time I was in an airport was after I got of a plan to meet my whole family for the first time when I was just 2 months old. As before, my family was able to meet my mom and I right at the gate. TSA wasn’t even a thing like it is today. On September 11th of 2000 tragedy struck this nation and nothing has been the same since. My father received a call the morning of the 11th to load up in a P-3 Orion with 10 other people and was set up to be in the air by noon. They flew up and down the coast patrolling for 11 draining hours. They had loaded up the plane with missiles and were told to fire them at any plane in sight. As you can imagine my mom was terrified, because all of what was just listed was unknown information at the time. We were stationed in Brunswick Maine at the time and to my knowledge now, the men who flew the planes into the twin towers started their morning by taking a plane from Portland Maine to Boston, from which they then hijacked the planes that were to be longer flights because they had the most fuel. The things my parents have told me, have changed me into who I am today, based on what they
I ran around the house, informing everybody that I found my ticket. Although my parents were so relieved that my ticket was found, they were also worried we would miss the flight. My dad quickly carries down everyone’s luggage, putting it by the door. With only a matter of minutes to spare, everyone grabs their luggage and runs out the door. My parents help my sister and I put our luggage into the trunk and everyone grabs their seat in the car. As the car engines fires up, everyone makes a last minute check, making sure they have everything, especially their
It was still about five hours until our flight and Alfred looked starved after going without food for an hour. We found a parking spot to abandon his car in until we came back from the trip. The bus to the terminal took a while, but it did not justify waking up so early for the 11 o’ clock flight. It wasn’t until we got inside that I found out just how much the airport has changed. We checked in our luggage and printed out our tickets at this machine that scanned our passports. We went up an escalator to find our gate, but before we could get to it there was this huge line we had to go through.
It was the 11th, the day that we arrived. My dad and my sister had already made it, and it was really late. My flight landed, and so had 16 others. We off of the flight, and headed straight for immigration. Last time we came, immigration took 5 minutes, but this time, it took 45! After the long immigration process, we went to the baggage belt, where we couldn’t find our bags. While we were walking to go and file a complaint, we found one of our bags off of the baggage belt. Others took our bags off of the belt, so we went around the belt to find the bags. After we found the bags, we headed out of the airport. It was 4 am, and as soon as we got home, we went to sleep. We got up at about nine and got ready to go to my aunt and uncle’s 25th anniversary
The clock stuck 3:45am and we packed up out makeshift bedding of carry-on items. With all the strength we could muster we gathered our bags, which seemed to weight a billion pound now. We had to get through security. Rounding the corner for TSA we could see everyone was already in line. Another 40 minutes later we were there. The first time we went through security check the day before they pulled Jamie aside to rip her bag apart. She had a camera and a bottle of perfume she forgot to take out that set off certain alarm...and I guess it looked like a terrorist. Just for fun, I took her bag and left the exact same camera and perfume in there, we had time and I wanted to see what would happen. We made it through security without any trouble. Feeling safe at the airport yet? Same objects in the bag, no security stopped us. Wow.
Lost my way in Seattle airport was the first thing made me felt nervous. It was already in America, but I didn’t have time to take a time for looking out the view outside because I couldn’t fine the place to transfer my luggage to Salt Lake City, also, the time was limited for boarding but I was still looking for where I could get the boarding pass. I was running in a hurry and kept asking people for help, it was winter but I
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
When we got to the airport we couldn’t really do anything. It was so scary that we were there before some workers. We had to sit and wait in the airport for an hour and a half. I was really hungry by the time we were at the airport but nothing was open.
Of course, I had to go through immigration, pick up my bag, and once again pass through security. Once I was in the gates, I started finding my gate, and by this time I had only 3 hours left to leave. I was desperately hungry, like if I hadn’t eaten for a long time. This was the first thing I did, eat. I waited there until it was time to board again. Like one hour before boarding, I started walking to my gate. People were all rushing, and desperately trying to go everywhere, so it took me awhile to get there. By 8:00pm, I already was inside the plane. About one-hour flight, I was so tired but refused to sleep. I watched all the people around me, and in that moment I felt so lonely in the plane because I didn’t know anybody at all. Once I got there I took a taxi, and went to my apartment where I had everything already set up since summer. I fell asleep and didn’t wake up until next
My father had to take care of the house while we were gone so he was going to drive us to the airport. As we got to the airport we said our goodbyes, we were a little late so we rushed through TSA security
On a recent trip to the airport, I was stuck in over two hours of traffic. Finally, after reaching check-in, the line for Security just seemed to wrap and wrap around. “I will be calm,” I said. “I know I'm going to make the flight.” I had a wedding to get to, and I was already going to be three hours late to the event. After filing through security, I zoomed as fast as I could down the corridors, whisking past stores, people and escalators. I was there! The finish line was right in front of me and I ran to show my ticket to the ticketing agent. “Sorry, the flight is closed,” she said.
I sat there thinking about my delay on the way over and thought it couldn’t be that bad again. I occupied myself by texting my first host family’s son and telling him everything that happened over the course of my trip since I left their house. Next thing I know my flight was delayed again, and then again. Furious from more delays I went up to the gate desk where they gave me a thirty-five dollar meal voucher along with everyone else on the flight. It was generous offer but not what I planned for upon arriving to the airport. This is how I became friends with the woman next to me real quick. Together we spent the next four hours waiting, until we get the announcement that our flight has been canceled due to engine problems. This meant we had to go claim our baggage and then stand in a four-hour long line to receive a hotel room and a fifty-dollar dinner voucher. While standing in line, the little voice in the back of my head kept reminding me that patience is key, so I took some deep breaths and did what had to be done until new flight arrangements were
We all entered the airport with our heavy luggage and tired bodies. After we all got situated we had to go through security and bag check. I realized I remember why I hated airports because of the lines we had to wait in and the various amounts of families running around like a chicken with their head cut off. As we got through all the long lines of people we waited at our terminal for our flight time to board. Finally it was time to board our plane
At that moment my mind started going haywire, they really expected us to get on another plane ( or as my sister referred to it, a death-trap ). We both pleaded with my mom, begging her to just get a rental car as we wanted nothing more at the time than to get home without stepping foot into another cabin. We were both severely disappointed when were were told that it was not an option, we had to get back to Atlanta, and that after the day she has had my mom wouldn’t physically or mentally be able to drive this late at night back home. My sister and I agreed and we knew we were going to have to face our extreme fear of getting on another airplane. 150 passengers were on the original flight and only about 20 showed up for the one two hours later. I remember one thing that made me feel better though, and they were these three men who clearly had too much to drink ( I don’t blame them), and they were cracking jokes and just being very loud. In the end I think the other 17 of us were glad they were on board, because you could tell the energy in the cabin was just a tiny bit
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