At this point in my life, I’ve driven from Minnesota to California twice, and done the reverse trip once. I’ve also road-tripped from Minnesota to Virginia, Kansas City (twice), and Nashville. I feel pretty confident that if I needed to, I could hop in a car and get where I needed without much effort or worry. It’s a mode of transportation I am extremely comfortable with on any scale, and am well-versed in some of its intricacies.
Flying is a bit different. Prior to beginning my job, I had never flown alone. Also, I had only flown twice before — a trip to Ohio in 6th grade with my family, and a trip to Orlando for marching band in 12th grade. I was not in charge of much in either of these cases, and had others to help me along. Now, I have flown back to Minnesota twice in the past two months, and will make it three for three when I fly home for Christmas. It’s new, and I’m getting used to it, but last night was quite a hoot flying back to California.
I left my carry-on at security.
I had been a bit rushed due to how busy the airport was, and since I had a laptop, iPad, and Nook — all of which needed to be taken out since they were larger than my phone — I was scrambling at the other end to toss them all in my backpack. Then, I just neglected to remember my carry-on at the end of everything. I started hustling to my concourse, and by the time I was within 300 feet of my gate I realized I was traveling a bit lighter than I remembered I should be.
So, in a bit of a panic (even though it was about a 5 minute brisk walk, and I had 30 minutes to spare at least) I rushed back to security. Obviously ignoring the massive DO NOT ENTER signs posted, I entered. Luckily, I saw my bag by the Help desk, but didn’t know what sort of protocol was to be followed. So, I went up to said desk, and asked a nice TSA lady what to do in this situation; after describing my bag she says “Oh, is that it right there?”
“Ah, yes of course, there’s my name and the luggage tag I described! Thank you!”
And I was well on my way, with plenty of time to spare. But it was pretty nerve-wracking, and I never stopped thinking I may have forgotten something, or maybe something important would fall out of my pockets or backpack. Traveling takes a bit to get used to, especially a different form of transportation. But within the next few months I think I’ll have flying down. Perhaps I’ll take up trains next.