Miss (Understood) Fortune

This is how I felt...

"All human life can be found in an airport." --David Walliams

We missed our final connection flight back from St. Maarten despite running through the Charlotte, NC airport and getting to the gate five minutes before the scheduled take off.  That’s right, I am beginning with the end of the trip, go with it. After standing in line for about half an hour we were put on stand-by for the last flight to DC of the night, and with half-hearted hope that we could avoid spending the night in uncomfortable airport seats, we made our way back down to the gate. 

Over the next few hours Dad I and I walked all over the airport for the apparently rare delicacies of chicken fingers and French fries, Mom and I got Pink Berry, and I went to the bathroom every time I was bored.  On my first trip to the bathroom I saw my newest friend, my seatmate on the four hour flight from St. Maarten to Charlotte (more about her another time).  “Meghan! Did you guys miss your flight?”

I nodded sadly, “Missed it by a few minutes.” Checking my watch I saw it was also past the time her plane to Philadelphia should’ve taken off.  “What about you guys?”
“It was delayed,” she replied.  We chatted a few more minutes before I went back to my parents, intensely jealous of her good fortune.

If we had arrived about ten minutes earlier for our flight—if the plane had left a few minutes earlier, if there hadn’t been a dead bird on the runway, if there hadn’t been thunderstorms all up the East Coast, if the Customs Office had let us deplane right away—we would’ve been halfway to DC by that time.  Carolina and her husband knew they would make it home tonight.  We did not, and that just seemed unfair.

I sat back down, my mom was making phone calls to her boss and to substitute dental hygienists, my dad was e-mailing about his friend’s father passing away, and the wind was emptying from my sails.  It wasn’t ruining our vacation, but it was a sucky way for things to end.

I called my roommate who was graciously picking us up from the airport to update her and explained to my parents what I’d found out about our checked luggage when the loud announcement echoed through the airport, “The flight to Philadelphia has been cancelled.  Please see the customer service desk for new flight arrangements.”

The capricious airline gods had shifted their favor just that quickly, and now we were the lucky ones. 

If you’d asked me twenty minutes before, I’d have told you I’d have chosen the delayed flight over the missed one time one.  But it would’ve been the foolish, short-sighted choice.  And whether that reminder comes through a missed connecting flight or another way, today I was desperately in need of it. 

It’s past June 24^th.  And no, I still don’t have a job.  I might seem obsessed at this point, it’s just that paying for food and rent seems sort of important.  But if it were up to me, I know exactly how I’d write the fairy tale ending to my journey of waiting this year.  I wouldn’t even have to think twice.

But it might be that my fairy tale is the short sighted story that is totally unsatisfying and a misfortune in the long run.  I can’t see into the future, so I have to trust the Author of Time who can.  And that’s still hard.

Beyond D10, the plane.  The Promised Land. 

As we sat, waiting for our flight, I chatted with Zach, a fellow Northern Virginia resident who had missed his connection and wanted to get on the last flight out.  We commiserated until he realized I had already gone from the Stand-by Land of Maybe into the Certainty of Seat Assignments.  “Bastards,” he said without malice.  I wasn’t ready to give him my seat, but I didn’t wish a night inside the airport on anyone. 

So I wonder, is my plan, what I think is exactly what I want, would it end up being a False Promise like a delayed to cancelled flight?  Am I willing to sit through this uncertainty of an endless night in the airport if it means I get what is really best?  Have I completely taken this metaphor too far?

Probably. 

So I’ll just say we did eventually get home, and my gem of a roomie picked us up well after midnight.  My parents rolled into their house after 3am.  I’m not sure how Carolina and her husband ever got home.  And not only did Zach get on the flight too, he got a seat in first class.