Essay about Personal Narrative

Submitted By Shanferrara
Words: 2181
Pages: 9

It was on a hot June evening when I arrived at the airport, this would be my second time on a plane, but my first medical mission trip. As I pulled into the airport I could see my team waiting for me. It was finally happening, I was about to venture into a third world country. My palms were sweaty from my nerves becoming unsettled, but my eagerness helped overcome them. Once everyone had arrived we headed to the airport check-in to weigh our luggage. We each brought two full suitcases of donations that could weigh no more than fifty pounds. In total we had sixteen suitcases and only four of them met the weight limit, I always thought security was a hassle, but this definitely taught me otherwise. After pulling out all the items and sorting them into different suitcases, we were ready to move on. I never thought it would be such a relief to head to security. The line was overflowing with impatient and weary travelers. After almost being in line for what felt like an eternity it was finally my turn and a grey haired fellow with a friendly grin asked me to step forward. I could see our terminal on the other side of the metal detector, I was almost free. I made it through without any problems and as I waited for my team I let go a sigh of relief, knowing that the worst part was over. Now it was time to relax and wait for our flight. At the time I didn’t know that it was just the beginning of a very long hectic night. Our flight was leaving at 12:00a.m. and it was roughly 11:30p.m. when a woman’s voice resounded from the speakers above to announce, “Flight 302 is now boarding, please make your way to gate number twelve, flight 302 is now boarding”. That was us, at last we made it. I walked down the aisle to locate my seat and halfway down I found it, seat number 91 would be my best friend for the next five hours. As I waited for the plane to take off I tried to close my eyes and take a breather. After about an hour or so of tossing and turning while countless thoughts ran through my head, I managed to doze off. It was the voice from one of the flight attendants announcing that we would soon be arriving at our destination that awoke me. I could feel the plane begin to descend, the pressure started to pop my ears, I braced myself for the landing. As we hit the ground the whole plane shook while squealing tires slowly brought us to a stop and the roaring engine ceased, we had landed safely. My team and I grabbed all our carry-ons from the above compartments and headed into the airport where we would claim our baggage. After attaining all sixteen suitcases we headed down to the food court to wait for our ride. At this time it was almost 5:00a.m. and it had been about an hour or so when we realized something was wrong. Jose, who has been transporting these mission trips for the past seventeen years had never been late. We called up the convent we were to be staying at to find out what was going on, it turns out Jose didn’t think we were coming until the next day and had no idea we were even at the airport. At this point we were all drained, it had been such a long night and wasn’t even close to being over. We were about two hours from the convent and Jose lived almost three hours away, which meant it was time to get comfortable. In the food court there were metal benches that we would claim for the next five hours. My eyes were burning and I could hardly keep them open, all I wanted to do was take a nap but I learned that metal benches at an airport don’t form well to your body. To pass the time we played cards and discussed what we had planned for the next week. The time was now 11:30a.m. and one of the guys shouted, “He’s here!”. We all rejoiced and headed to the van with our massive stack of belongings. As I stepped outside a warm breeze brushed my face and the sun’s heat penetrated through to my bones rejuvenating them after the long night. I was here at last, I made it to the Dominican Republic. The luggage was all packed and