Student Bloggers

The time is 3:30AM. I’ve stayed up all night to ensure that I’ll be able to catch the shuttle to the airport without oversleeping. All of the sudden I get a text from my dad saying “Looks like your flight has been cancelled…on the phone now.” My shuttle is set to pick me up in 15 minutes, meaning my dad has 15 minutes to tell me what the deal is and if I’ll even be able to make it to England. You could almost see frustration squiggles coming off my head as if I were in a Garfield comic. Unfortunately there was no lasagna loving cat to lighten my mood… My dad wasn’t able to communicate my plan before I got on the shuttle and the only parting text I got was “Try to find WiFi at the airport so we can talk.” It dawned on me that Murphy’s Law is real when it comes to travel. For those who don’t know Murphy’s Law, in essence it means that if something can go wrong, it will go wrong.

To touch upon this, let me explain why my flight got cancelled in the first place. It wasn’t due to bad weather, or engine failure, or a missing pilot. Lufthansa, the airline I was booked on, decided to go on STRIKE the day I was intended to fly to London, in effect cancelling over 10,000 flights. I arrived at the airport and was lucky enough to find WiFi so I could get in touch with my parents. My updated itinerary had me arriving at London City Airport at about 4PM, making me 4 hours too late and in the completely wrong airport to receive an escort to my hotel from Arcadia’s London Center staff. Not to mention that had me waiting in the airport for almost 10 hours when it only should have been about 4. After sitting on the floor and having a good cry into my carry on, I realized that as frustrating as the situation was, there was nothing that could be done but to compose myself and move forward. My parents helped me rebook my flight, get in contact with the London Center, and find a lounge in the airport where I could hang out for a while. They were even generous enough to give me some money for snacks. I was able to catch up on some sleep that I desperately needed while I was in the lounge.

Unfortunately, since it was a lounge and not a hotel, I had to position myself creatively in an armchair in order to get comfortable enough to nod off (though it wasn’t that hard seeing as how I hadn’t slept the night before). After 4 hours of creative positioning and surprisingly deep sleep, I was finally awake and in a better mood. The Austrian man sitting in the armchair next to me even made it a point to tell me that he was impressed with how easily I was able to fall asleep in a chair.

Finally, it was time to go through security. To add to this day of suck I was forced to endure, I was yelled at in the security line because I was accidentally standing in a security line that was for men only. In my defense I had never before seen a male only security line but after a day full of tears and stress it was the last thing I wanted. After sitting at the wrong gate for a while, I finally ended up in the right place.

As I was sitting on the plane, it hit me: no matter all the things that had gone wrong that day, I still got to end the day in London. All of the stress, tears, anxiety, and armchair related injuries suddenly became insignificant. Though I would never wish a travel day like that on my worst enemy, it made me realize that once you move past the suck, the end result is always special… and no matter what there will be people who can help you deal with the situation. I was fortunate enough to not only have my parent’s support and guidance, but that of Arcadia’s London Center as well, who were nothing but accommodating and supportive when it came to getting me where I needed to be. As I sit here all settled in and starting this next chapter of my life, I don’t even feel bad about the day I had… it was all part of the experience.