why Delta sucks and Tennessee doesn't
Last weekend I went to Bryan College Homecoming, and this is how it went.
Friday morning at 4:30 am, I got up after another unbelievably short night to head to the airport. Bleary and exhausted, I tried not to fall asleep at my gate so as not to miss my 7:15 flight, which turned slowly into an 11:30 flight when maintenance-related delay after delay kept our plane on the ground. I, angry and turning into something non-human in frustration and sleepiness, finally got the very last seat on a different plane at 11:25, my original plane still on the ground and not even thinking about boarding, by forcing the overly detached Delta employee to change my ticket while a line of similarly livid passengers stood behind me in line. My second flight from ATL to Chattanooga was, of course, also delayed, so I finally arrived in Dayton at 5:15 after planning to be there around 1:30.
This trip being based around a reunion of sorts, I had (of course) planned to look great and be in the best possible shape, etc, as anyone would (right? tell me I'm not vain!) but instead showed up exhausted, sleep deprived, puffy-faced, grimy and having gained three pounds last week from not having time to eat a real meal but consuming whatever presented itself (i.e. pizza and chocolate). I was wishing that I had saved my money and stayed home.
Once I was there, though, all my frustration was just gone. I guess I haven't thought about how different my life is from pre-India, but it is radically different. When I came back my family had spread out more, my mother's health had gone down significantly and the dynamic within my family had really changed. Not to mention that Virginia was no longer my home as I had already decided to come to Kansas. Kansas itself has been a huge adjustment for me too since I've always lived in the South and wasn't really ready for how different it would be here, especially while processing all the reverse culture shock that came alone with coming back.
But going back to Tennessee felt like being placed right back in the middle of myself. As I met people I used to know, conversations were almost seamless with where we had left off and I felt like I had fallen back into a spot that I had left there, shaped like me and still warm. We've all definitely grown up a lot and our lives have changed, but I found acceptance where I had expected judgment and trust where I expected distance and comraderie where I expected awkwardness and those differences are priceless to me.
Plus, don't get me started on the FOOD - it was beautiful.
And Tennessee is striking and slow and the green hills and the big trees felt like a deep, peaceful heaven.
On Sunday I left and once I was at the airport and alone again I started to wonder how I would feel when I got back here. If it would seem the same. I wondered how Nate would have liked it there and how he would have meshed with my old Bryan environment.
But really, it doesn't matter. I'll find out where all of this ends up sooner than later and the point is that home still exists, and that's more than I thought.
Friday morning at 4:30 am, I got up after another unbelievably short night to head to the airport. Bleary and exhausted, I tried not to fall asleep at my gate so as not to miss my 7:15 flight, which turned slowly into an 11:30 flight when maintenance-related delay after delay kept our plane on the ground. I, angry and turning into something non-human in frustration and sleepiness, finally got the very last seat on a different plane at 11:25, my original plane still on the ground and not even thinking about boarding, by forcing the overly detached Delta employee to change my ticket while a line of similarly livid passengers stood behind me in line. My second flight from ATL to Chattanooga was, of course, also delayed, so I finally arrived in Dayton at 5:15 after planning to be there around 1:30.
This trip being based around a reunion of sorts, I had (of course) planned to look great and be in the best possible shape, etc, as anyone would (right? tell me I'm not vain!) but instead showed up exhausted, sleep deprived, puffy-faced, grimy and having gained three pounds last week from not having time to eat a real meal but consuming whatever presented itself (i.e. pizza and chocolate). I was wishing that I had saved my money and stayed home.
Once I was there, though, all my frustration was just gone. I guess I haven't thought about how different my life is from pre-India, but it is radically different. When I came back my family had spread out more, my mother's health had gone down significantly and the dynamic within my family had really changed. Not to mention that Virginia was no longer my home as I had already decided to come to Kansas. Kansas itself has been a huge adjustment for me too since I've always lived in the South and wasn't really ready for how different it would be here, especially while processing all the reverse culture shock that came alone with coming back.
But going back to Tennessee felt like being placed right back in the middle of myself. As I met people I used to know, conversations were almost seamless with where we had left off and I felt like I had fallen back into a spot that I had left there, shaped like me and still warm. We've all definitely grown up a lot and our lives have changed, but I found acceptance where I had expected judgment and trust where I expected distance and comraderie where I expected awkwardness and those differences are priceless to me.
Plus, don't get me started on the FOOD - it was beautiful.
And Tennessee is striking and slow and the green hills and the big trees felt like a deep, peaceful heaven.
On Sunday I left and once I was at the airport and alone again I started to wonder how I would feel when I got back here. If it would seem the same. I wondered how Nate would have liked it there and how he would have meshed with my old Bryan environment.
But really, it doesn't matter. I'll find out where all of this ends up sooner than later and the point is that home still exists, and that's more than I thought.
posted by sarah at 9:14 AM
1 Comments:
its funny that the food was good. i mean, it was never bad food at bryan, but, you know, not great. thats just funny. you should send me a facebook or myspace message and catch me up on all the info that i missed by not being there.
very very glad to hear that you had a great time. :)
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