"Thank you for flying Air Canada": Things I have learned about myself through memories of travel

   

 My family (including myself) is a very forgetful clan. Therefore we do not have massively important stories that have changed my thinking or persuaded me to live my life to the fullest. But none the less, there are stories that I have been a part that are so memorable and important to me that I will be sure to tell to future generations... or to anyone that will listen.

    A story that I remember as clear as day occurred a few years ago. My family at LAX in California trying to get back home. We had scheduled a flight to leave Friday at noon to get us back to DET four hours later. When taking a taxi to the airport in California, all of that changed. My dad got a notification that our flight was cancelled, not delayed, but cancelled. We were a little anxious at that point but we kept it cool until we got to our terminal which was filled with thousands of people, all rescheduling any plane they could to get to Detroit. 

    It took us an hour to get to a service desk where the service clerk said, "The next flight to Detroit International Airport is on Monday is that okay?" We all stared blankly. The NEXT FLIGHT IS IN THREE DAYS!?! We then spent an hour at the desk trying to formulate a way to get three seats on any flight that would get us somewhere close to Michigan. We looked into Columbus, Memphis, New York, Indiana, or anywhere that would get us out of the airport. A half hour in, I sighed out of frustration, "why don't we just fly to Toronto?" Thankfully we brought all of our passports, so we could travel international to get to Troy Michigan. We bought our seats on the next Air Canada flight to Toronto and waited. 

    We then got our tickets for a flight at 8 o'clock at night. It turned out to be standby seats but we just barely made it on the plane.  We were so tired that we all slept soundly through that red eye flight. 

    So what is the moral from that story? Is it to always bring your passport when you travel?  Is it to fly Air Canada? Yes and no. It did highlight how important it is to be prepared for anything that comes my way, but it most accurately showed the importance of anger management. Honestly, reliving that day makes me want to throw a sledgehammer through the wall (but I didn't). Without keeping calm and collected my family would not have been able to get back home. We didn't give our hopes up which is something that is very easy to do when you are stranded at an airport terminal. 

    Our optimism was high that day and on that occasion we succeeded.