Travel Stories...

Wow. What a day!

As I write, I'm in San Francisco waiting for my next flight that will bring me to my final destination of Arcata. I've got nothing left, I'm just exhausted and I really just want to get to a bed. The last 24 hours have been extremely challenging. The idea of being alone and being so far away from anyone I know really started to set in on Friday morning. Conveniently, I had left myself one rather large task to do before I left home to keep my mind occupied -- PACKING.

For those that know me, you know a few things that enhance this story:
1) I'm not necessarily "organized", but I am sharp as a tack and remember where I put things.

2) My wardrobe is relatively simple.

Backtrack to move out from Marquette this semester. This experience can only really be classified as "hot mess". I wanted and needed to get out of Carpenter and things just ended up in boxes in my basement. This made packing for CA much more interesting. Most of my clothes were out, but very little else. Needless to say, I was able to find everything (...except for one thing...) and managed to maneuver it into roughly 75 pounds of stuff. Even I was pretty impressed with my ability to pull it together under pressure.

I did mention that there was one thing that I couldn't find. But I'm very proud to announce that not only do I hold a Social Security Card, but that I also know where it is. As Jess (@mollyputz88) knows, this provided me a VERY healthy distraction during finals week when I was freaking out about not having it. It turns out I had stashed it at home....thank goodness.

After getting my life in order, I was able to get about 2 hours of sleep to prepare for my crazy day. GLORIOUS. I did get some more sleep on my way to the Milwaukee Airport, but once we got there it was entertaining.

United tells all customers to be there 90 minutes before their flight departs when in Milwaukee. 5am departure time equals a 330am arrival at the airport correct? Sounds great, except for the fact that United doesn't open their ticket counters until 4am. No naturally when my dad and I arrive at 3am, the airport is dead. Gotta love air travel.

O'Hare was fun, met a family that was traveling to Hawaii to see their son come back from a year-long deployment with the Marines. It was heart-warming for me to hear their story and especially on Memorial Day weekend, it helped to put everything into perspective.

Now, I'm at San Francisco waiting for my final flight of the day into Arcata. It's kind of foggy, but the locals say that is normal, and it can make flying in and out of here a total crap-fest. Let's hope my flight goes according to plan -- Matt needs a BED.


Haunting Thoughts:
One thing that I've been pondering for a while is the concept of how walking is an act of falling. How everytime you take a step, you don't know if you will be able to safely place that foot back down. We constantly fall -- but we fall forward.

As I take these next steps in my life, toward this summer, toward my Senior year of college, toward Grad School, I think it is important to note that you do fall forward with every step. If you don't fall, it wouldn't be a step in that direction.

Here's to taking the next step, and having enough faith in myself to know that the foot will land down safe and sound, only to prepare to take the next step.

Pictures to come!!
-M



(Side Note: After I wrote this, I proceeded to have my flight to Arcata delayed 2 times due to fog, making my trip almost 4 full hours longer than necessary.)