The Voyage

If you have ever flown on an overnight flight you will know what I am talking about. I actually enjoyed it. It wasn’t exactly something that I could do all the time, but unlike most I did not dread it. The experience was different, a step above the little four or five hour flight. Its like you moved in temporarily to the plain, claiming your seat as your personal space. Sleeping was definitely a challenge, however, as I did spend quite an effort falling asleep. I can’t really remember how long I slept, if I did at all; but I know I did because the flight did not seem like it was ten hours long. And I dreamed. I dreamed about back home, a logical thing to dream about considering it was on my mind. But I had a movie or two, enjoyed dinner, I had pasta, and began the attempt to sleep. It was a strange night, probably one of the strangest I have had in a while. You know that split second right after you awake from a dream where you sometimes convince yourself that you have yet to wake—like that dream was actually reality, but then you look around and realize that it was in fact not. Well when I awoke at one point, as I did wake up many times, I experienced that moment. I forgot what I was doing and where I was. Then when reality hit me and reminded me of my situation, I was not in the comfort of my home, but rather surrounded by strange people all experiencing the same moment; and on top of that I was thousands of miles in the air. When thought about normally, other then it being kind of cool because not everyone gets a chance to do it, an overnight plane ride is nothing special. But when all of the thoughts—being so high in the air, confined in a tiny seat that seems to thwart any position or hope that you would look to for comfort, the unfamiliar faces sleeping near you with the occasional shuffle of bodies attempting to find that optimum position, being up in the air flying at two in the morning having five hours of flight time left but still only being halfway through, etc.—rush back all at once, its almost overwhelming; but only for a split second (I am not complaining, I enjoyed the flight and its factors.. or whatever. You know what I mean).

I finally fell asleep, in a way, when breakfast was brought around in the morning. Again, another weird feeling. I thought about everyone back home who went to sleep the night before when I was in the air and then woke up the next morning to go to school or work, and I was still chilling in the air. Its like breakfast was a whole night away, but then again it was. But to think about that being the case on the plane was a strange thought. Oh and I found someone else that was going to WOL. He is from Charlotte and was on my flight to ATL and Argentina; and he is 33, which actually worried me a bit because I didn’t want to be the only young person there (Ha just kidding.. just in case he reads this). And the health form I had to fill out was confusing. It asked for the date like 12 times and by the time I started the form it was sept. 2^nd but when I finished it was the 3^rd.. so what do I put!? But it was difficult and confusing.. so I left like half of it blank and the argentine customs lady yelled at me in Spanish but I told her to get over it and she let me through…