My Flight

Mayra Hernandez

February 17, 2013

English 1A

Kristina Rogers

My Flight

“Just great! I do not understand why people tend to be late to the airport.” I told my sister as she looked through the window of the airplane. The flight attendant had just announced that the airplane could not leave yet because they were waiting for another passenger to come aboard. Why don’t we just leave them I thought to myself, people should know that when buying a plane ticket one must be early to the airport.

After 10 more minutes the passenger had finally arrived. She look like she had run a mile I could tell by the way she was breathing. She was heading to the back of the plane where it seem she had her seat. As the lady came down the hallway some of the passengers gave her a mean look, others did not mind. When she got close to me, I shook my head and sigh loud enough for her to hear me. By now the lady had spotted her seat and she did not took her eyes of the seat. This has been the 5^th time that someone was late on the plane I was in.  One knows that we need to be there at least a few hours earlier.

It was a beautiful Sunday spring day, very bright with just a little bit of cool breeze in Long Beach. My sister Jessica and I went to Long Beach because one of our best friends was now engaged and we she wanted my sister and I to help her with some of the wedding plans. It was my last day of the short getaway weekend with my sister. We decided to go to Long Beach down town around 10 am and waste some time since our flight was leaving at 4:45pm. My friend’s fiancé drop the 3 of us at a store. He had to go because he worked, however he said he would be picking us up around 3:00pm to be on time to catch our flight. I did not think that was a good time because I always like to be on time for any flight. He assured me that the Long Beach airport is so small that even if I got there at 4:00pm I would make it perfectly on time. I was not happy about the answer but I decided to trust him.

My sister, my friend Marcy and I decided to go from store to store.  After a while we decided to eat around 1:00pm at the California Pizza Kitchen. My sister got and email from the airline saying that the flight time had change from 4:45pm to 6:30pm. My friend call her fiancé saying that our time flight had change so he did not need to pick us up at 3:00pm. We were happy about it because it gave us more time to enjoy the day. To see the ship Queen Mary was our next plan after lunch. When we got to the Queen Mary it was now 3:00pm. 10 minutes after we got there my sister got another email again from the airline. I ask what it said, but she did not look at me she looked very focused at her phone like as if she did not wanted to misunderstand a single word from it. She looked at me and laughed a little, I believe it was from the nerves. She said “The airline switch back the time again, our plane is leaving at the time it was schedule first.”

 My heart started to pump like crazy, I could not believe they had done this. My friend told me to relax that the airport was not far from where we were and that we would make it on time. She quickly call her fiancé to come and pick us up. We decided to walk closer to the main avenues so when our ride would come it would be faster for him to pick us up. I checked my phone every 20 seconds and it seem time was running faster. Time passed and passed and our ride was nowhere to be seen. I was ready to call a taxi. After 30 minutes our ride got there. I got inside the car as quickly as I could. “You do know I have a plane to catch right? I told my friends boyfriend, “Relax I have been to the airport 20 minutes before my flight was leaving and I was able to take my flight” he told me.  “I do not care, it is not always the same for everyone.” I thought to myself. I wanted to say some other stuff but after all he was my ride and at the moment I could not allow myself to ask for a new driver.

 “Oh NO!” I yelled “We still need to get our bags from your house Marcy.” I felt like vomiting at the time. I would not mind missing the flight and just buy a new airplane ticket if I just had the money. However at this very moment I just could not afford it. “We are going to miss our flight” this thought run through my head 100 times. I needed to be at work early the next day and I had school too.

We finally arrived at Marcy’s house I quickly jump out of the car and went inside the house grab the bags and into the car. It was now 4:10pm and I wanted to believe it was just a joke. It seem there was not traffic but all of a sudden many cars started to appear. It reminded me of when I try to kill ants and it seems like you got the last one when all off a sudden 1,000 more appear out of nowhere.

It was such a relieve for me when I saw the airport however I was not sure if I was going to make it on time. I grab my bag while getting out of the car I yelled “Thanks” to my friends and my sister and I ran inside the airport. Some of the people looked at us weird because we really ran like if a zombie was chasing us. We still had to check in and an employee was walking just in front of us when I grab him arm. “I am very sorry sir but I believe my flight is about to leave and we still need to check in, is there any way we can be in front of the line.” The man was very kind to us, he talk to one of the other employees and allowed us to be helped that very moment.  The employee ask where we were heading to and she grab the phone. “Has the Sacramento flight left yet?” she ask to the person on the other line. “Open back the door, open the door” she repeated “There are two more passengers, open back the door.” My goodness our flight was about to leave and we had not even gone through security. “Please be fast, the plane will be waiting for you girls” the lady told us. “Thank you so much” my sister and I said at the same time, I was about to cry.

To take a plane from Long beach airport we literally have to go outside to where the plane is at. We rush to where security was at and headed outside. We ran like 2 crazy girls with everyone there watching us. At the moment I didn’t not care I was determined to get to that plane. They had open the door once again, I thank God for that. I enter the plane first and it was full. I spotted two empty seats in the back, second to last row. I notice I was breathing heavily, I felt my face red. All of a sudden I notice people rolling their eyes at me, shaking their heads, I even heard someone whisper “Hurry up damn it.” I felt very embarrassed, sick and humiliated. I could not comprehend how I was now the one who was holding the flight. Me out of all the people, me? As I was going towards my seat I did not take my eyes off of it.

 I got to my seat thank God, we made it I thought and took a deep breath of relieve. I suddenly remember all the faces and comments I heard as I came down the hallway. How rude this people are I thought to myself if they only knew. That’s where it struck me, that I too had done that to other people and I promise myself in that airplane that I would not mind anymore if anyone was late to the plane I would be in.