THE AIRPORT

Nothing beats the anticipation. I remember when I was younger Christmas Eve was always more exciting than Christmas Day. The thought of waking up before the sun came up and opening presents, for some reason, was always sweeter than the process itself. Well, for travel … imagine the point in your life where you were the most excited about doing something and then multiply that by 100 and you will still only get a fraction of the excitement that went through my mind the weeks, days, and hours prior to my departure. The best part about all of this is that the anticipation doesn’t go away because each new day of your journey is like opening up a new present and the gifts keep getting better and better.

I could talk about the 8 months prior to the trip but that would be a whole lot of boring discussion about how I researched my destination and how at the last minute I changed my mind and decided to go to Prague. Instead, I am going to start with the airport because that’s where the feeling intensified and I became as happy as I have ever been before. I was considering just getting dropped off at the airport but I decided to ask my mom if she would escort me and have dinner before take off at TGIF at Tampa International. I remember specifically ordering a Caesar salad with fries and an Ultimate Long Island Iced Tea. I figured it might help to get a light buzz before I embarked. After the meal I gave my mom a hug and said good bye. I was alone now.

I still had some time before I had to be in the terminal for boarding and I remembered that the airport hotel had a piano in the hallway so I went to go play around on it for a few minutes. I sat down and started playing the variation of Pachelbel’s Canon in D that I know… let me tell you. This is when the culmination of all my preparation and all my anxiety and every ounce of anticipation came together. I was absolutely in a state of ecstasy and nothing could stop me. I finally came to the realization that I did what I set out to do and now I have to just strap myself in and enjoy the amazing ride I was about to partake in. I played for a few moments and just basked in the fulfillment and before long I started to make my way to the terminal.

(to be continued...)