I made it.
What does it take to get from Houston, Texas all the way to Brisbane, Australia? Ill tell you.
1. Very LONG plane rides
My first flight was 14 hours and 25 minutes long to Auckland, New Zealand. How did I manage? Not too sure.
The flight time itself made me feel very anxious and scared. I’m not typically scared of flying, I mean aside from experiencing major turbulence before, I’m usually good with staying calm. I had a gut feeling I wouldn’t make it because of the amount of time flying over the Pacific Ocean, yes I can be that negative sometimes. I took a sleeping pill to pass time faster but that plan failed. Every time I would fall asleep, I’d wake up suddenly, I’d hope hours would pass by, but nope, it was the opposite. The plane seemed like it barely traveled. The whole flight was like this for me, super restless. After my New Zealand flight, I had another flight that was about 4 hours long to finally reach Brisbane, which I will discuss later on.
2. So MANY emotions
Wow, I didn’t picture myself crying as much as I did.
During my freshman year at UT, I suffered depression due to being homesick as I was in a completely different city alone. It was one of my hardest times but I fought through it and through the years I managed to adjust quite well. That same feeling I had my freshman year, I felt in the glimpse of my goodbye to my family and boyfriend at the airport. It was such a horrid feeling that drained my energy and in a way made me feel regret for choosing to study abroad.A month and 9,000 miles away from home just felt eternal in that moment as I watched my mother cry but really I had no option anymore. After my goodbye, I felt a bit numb. Then when my plane was taking off, I teared up because of my family but also because it had finally hit me that this was going to be a life changing experience that I had earned by working hard in college. It was always one of my dreams to visit Australia and I am here now. It’s a big accomplishment and despise my mother crying about the distance, I know she was crying because she was proud of me as well.
3. A CRAZY lady
Maybe if I had taken whatever this lady may have taken on the flight, I would of enjoyed flying a lot more.
There was a lady on my second flight who actually made the plane ride a lot more interesting. She would randomly get up and roam the airplane as if it was her own. She walked into first class, to economy, -- I mean she might as well get certified in being a tour guide for this 777 plane since she observed every detail including the people on it. When she would roam around she would ask people personal questions, some pertaining to religion. I even saw her putting her hand over a passenger’s head as if she was “healing”. After her interrogations stopped, she decided to gift us all with her signing, apparently she was singing some Bon Jovi song but I was just mesmerized by how open and comfortable she was on this flight. After a while, she decided it was naptime and she had to let the whole plane know. She started shushing people from her seat and also shouting, “don’t you people know I’m trying to get some sleep here!” Gosh, something was wearing off for her! These were just a couple of things she was doing on the flight, she kind of reminded me of Kristen Wiig on Bridesmaids in that one airplane scene.
4.An AMAZING friend
This journey will be shared with my best friend, Karla Benitez, one of the many people who have supported me through college. I met Karla my freshman year of college in one of the intro film classes that we are required to take. She was put in my group and somehow we just started to bond over Beyoncé. Queen B does bring us all together somehow! I would have never imagined we would get this far, literally. We were both lucky enough to have been accepted in the program and honestly if she hadn’t been accepted then I would have never taken on the program myself. So, thanks to her and her motivation, we are both exploring Australia!
