For most people the trip from Tampa to Rhode Island would be nothing more than a two stop flight and a few hours. Easy right? You get on one plane in Tampa, get off, get on another, and get off to find yourself in Rhode Island. Easy for everyone expect for me apparently.
It was my freshman year in college and the first time I had ever flown by myself. My best friend was going to the University of Tampa and I went to visit her. Who wouldn’t want to escape the cold winter of Rhode Island to go to Tampa? My mom was a bit worried about me switching planes alone so she told me the only way I could go was if my connecting flight was in Newark. Newark, an airport I have flown in and out of countless amounts of time. I could navigate my way around this airport with my eyes shut. I navigated every student on my Italian exchange trip from the check in counter to the gate my senior year of high school.
I had gotten to the airport in Tampa early on Sunday morning to board the plane that would take me to Newark. If anyone has ever flown in or out of Newark you know that planes are almost always delayed. This time was not any different. It was delayed two hours. During the last 30 minutes of the flight I could not stop looking at my watch. It was creeping closer and closer to the time that my next flight would be taking off. I was sitting on the edge of my seat during landing with a nervous knot in my stomach knowing that I was not going to make my next flight. I needed to leave early in order to be back for a sorority event that was going to be held on Sunday night. If I missed my connecting flight there was no way I was going to make it back to Rhode Island in time. I had never missed my flight, I was all alone, what was I going to do if I did miss my flight?
Once I heard the wheels hit the ground I just could not wait for everyone to get off. Because I was in the back of the plane it was going to take me forever to get off. Once I got off the plane I could not find my gate. I think I was so nervous about missing my flight that I just completely lost my bearings and could not figure out where I was or where I was going. I was on the phone with my mom yelling at her because I had no idea where my next gate was and I only had ten minutes before the flight took off. By the time I got to the gate I had missed the flight by just a couple minutes. I was so stressed out at that point that I just started hysterically crying to the lady at the counter because I didn’t know what to do now and I needed to get back to Rhode Island. She eventually calmed me down and scheduled me for the next flight… and lucky me, I only had to wait five hours by myself in an airport. A four hour trip had just turned into a nine hour trip because I made it to the gate about five minutes too late and I was not making it back for my event.
Not only was this trip exhausting because of how long it took me to get from Tampa to Rhode Island, this trip was exhausting because of how much I was stressing over the fact that I missed the plane and missed my sorority event. I don’t think I have ever slept as good as I did that night when I finally made it back to my dorm room.
