"You're too young to be traveling by yourself."
Well, that's unfortunate because here I am. I do sometimes look much younger than my actual age though, so maybe that's a part of why I get that so often.
As an out-of-state college student I will be traveling a lot by myself over the coming years. Flying in and out of Chicago O'hare Airport all by myself. It's fun. It's an adventure. It's a little bit stressful. (It's also incredibly expensive.)
A lady next to me on a red eye flight was so impressed with me flying on my own and complimented how independent I must be.
But I mean, I don't have much of a choice, I'm not some wild spirit yearning to conquer the world one hashtag insta-travel at a time. I'm just trying to get home.
Baggage and security is normally hectic and what not, but as a teenage girl traveling alone I'm always dreading the chance I might have to be frisked by TSA. I totally support security making sure there aren't any dangerous things going on my air plane and what not,but I prefer if strangers are not in my personal bubble.
After this I wander around until I end up at my gate and I'm obviously exhausted so next comes trying to find a seat. You can't sit down right next to someone; I wouldn't want to sit right next to a stranger. As I said, personal bubble. There's a necessary buffer zone that one might only venture to pass if and only if:
They have to charge their phone.
I really, really needed to charge my phone. I thought I had planned ahead by bringing a literally 12 foot long charger yet I failed to consider the actual process of plugging it in.
The charging ports had benches back to back on each side with people sitting in all the chairs and this means I would have to risk reaching over people to get a plug or even worse, attempting to engage in polite conversation with a stranger to ask for help.
Getting on the plane isn't so bad unless you have a heavy carry-on and you struggle lifting it up into the over-head bin with your dainty (scrawny) arms. I was sore from a flu shot the day before, just my luck right?
I'm able to sleep on planes if I'm listening to music. That was nice considering I was in a packed flight with a fidgety 3 year old behind me and two grandpas on either side of me.
Getting off the plane is my favorite part of it all. The people waiting in the gate all look at the people exiting from the plane. I feel like there's an exchange of sorts. There's so many people going places and this situation always makes me take a moment and think. Every one of these people getting off the plane has a reason to be here. Everybody waiting to board has some place to go.
I am one of those people. I'm a teenager going to school a little too far from home but I have a story and apparently I'm the independent heroin of my own story whether I like it or not.
This whole process will get easier every time. (I hope.) In a year or two I'll have a lot more interesting stories about my airport travels, and perhaps some expertise for younger college kids traveling about as well.
