The First Plane Ride
That morning I woke up early after a rough night’s sleep. I tossed and turned all night not able to sleep because of excitement and nerves. Also the fear of being in a large metal vessel thousands of feet in the air wouldn’t leave my brain. A plane is like a large metal bird in the sky that could go down at any minute. That fear was a tight hand around my neck never letting me catch my breath
My uncle pulled in front of our house at about six o’clock that morning with my cousin in the passenger seat. So I went to say goodbye to my parents. They weren’t sad goodbyes they were happy because we would see each other in a week. We embraced in a short awkward hug. Affection was not commonly found in my house, so a hug goodbye was a very rare event. After saying all of our goodbyes my sister, my cousin and I piled into the car we had an hour drive to the Detroit metro airport with no traffic at all. Which is lucky for an early monday morning drive during rush hour. The sun just began to rise causing the sky to turn a burnt orange color. And the air was just cool enough to wear a jacket.
As I got out of the car the air filled with airplane fumes and the sound of the jets caused my ears to ring. I walked up to the building and they collected our bags and pointed us to security inside. My nerves rose when I spotted security, not because I had something to hide it’s just that I hate walking through metal detectors and getting my bags searched. When I reached the front of the line the guard said, “We need you to go through the full body scan”. I responded with a quite ok and stepped through. Then I was told to cross my hands over my head and spread my feet apart. After walking back out the guard asked me to step to the side where I could see a screen displaying the outline of a human body with a bright yellow circle on its head. A female guard then approached me pulling on light blue rubber gloves. When she let go of the glove it snapped back like the release of a rubber band. I stood there as the women reached up and grabbed the huge heap of hair on my head. Apparently because I had such a large bun they had become suspicious. And as all this was going on in the corner of my eye I could see sister and cousin laughing at my dispense. They would keep reminding me of this every time somebody would ask about our trip.
After gathering all my belongings we headed down to our gate. Being at an airport two hours early is not fun. I sat there watching the the planes go by the large glass window and smelling the bitter morning coffee wafting for the nearby starbucks. The flight attendant finally began calling us to board “First class, zone one, zone two, zone three”
“That’s us” I said, scrambling out of my seat to get into the long line of passengers.
After about an hour after getting on the plane I had to go to the bathroom. The only problem was that the seatbelt light was on ,teasing me, telling not to get up from my seats. I sat inpatiently and fidgeted in my seat not able to sit still or pee might have come rushing down my legs and waited for the light to come on. After I waited about a half an hour the light went out and I stood up frantically trying to get to out, but I was in the window seat and my sister refused to move. Not being able to hold it in any longer I crawled over her and my cousin I ran rapidly rushing through the aisle trying to reach the back of the plane. When I reached the bathroom I swung open the door and stumbled in as fast as I could.
When I finally got back to my seat the seat belt light came back on and flight attendant told us to prepare for descent. The plane descended in a pattern. At first we would dive down then quickly straighten back again. Every time the plane took a dive and my stomach would jump into my throat just like dropping on the tower of terror in Disney world. After a while I began to calm down and tune out the ups and downs of the plane.
The plane finally landed and I felt a releases of tension I didn’t even know I had. It was like water rushing down my skin on a warm summer day. Eventually people began to get up and grab their bags. When I step out of the airplane the humid Florida air hit my entire body like a ton of bricks. A thin layer of sweat began to form on my skin and my eyes began to burn worse than they ever had before. I rubbed my burning eyes, It’s my mascara, I thought. I have always had a bad reaction to makeup on blistering hot days. They didn’t sting because of the heat, but because mascara was melting off of my eyelashes and into my eyes. I immediately ran to the bathroom and scrubbed my face tell it was red. Bright red veins popped out of my irritated eyes.
Riding on a Plane for the first time was an experience. I got my hair searched by a security guard and almost peed my pants on an airplane. If I never had this experience I wouldn’t feel accomplished in my life because I have always wanted to ride on an airplane. So by getting the chance to do something new has changed my life forever. And I will always remember this crazy experience.