A Sky Full of Stars

1. Airplanes Are Shooting Stars

Airports are hubs that see emotion and drama. People rushing through the airport to catch their flight. Couples and family members saying their goodbyes outside security. Anger rapidly growing as flights were canceled left and right. As the saying goes, airports and hospitals see more tears and prayers than churches.

But for a military family, airports are the only familiar place. The process is uniform and the result is always the same. Saying goodbye to an old place and hello to a new place. It's a constant cycle that repeats over and over again.

Emilia sat on the terminal floor-her world blocked out by headphones and the newest album from Taylor Swift. Her laptop balanced on her knees as she drafted another email to college admissions that she decided to reject yet another offer. While the emails had the same message, they stung like hell as soon as Emilia pressed the send button.

She closed her laptop and shoved it into her backpack. The email was the third email sent in a month, and Emilia couldn't take any more. It was almost November and she should have been in college. Not in an airport and traveling yet again.

She felt a nudge on her shoulder and looked up. Her brother motioned for her to stand and head to the gate. She got up and followed her brother to where their plane was boarding. As they reached the gate, Emilia noticed the line of people starting to form around the ticket counter. She checked her phone and saw that there was twenty minutes left until boarding. She always thought about those people as gate lice.

"Welcome to gate C14 from George Bush Intercontinental Airport to Glasgow, Scotland," the ticket lady said. "We will begin boarding shortly. Please make sure that your boarding ticket is available and that your passport is on the personal information page. As we call each number, please line up in the corresponding lane."

Emilia looked around and sat down on a nearby chair. All her life, she never had to wait in those lines to board an airplane. A big perk of having family in the military was using early boarding and having tons of airline status and miles. Both things made each move bearable.

The ticket lady came back on the loudspeaker and began the boarding process. Emilia stood and walked to her where her brother and father stood in line. The crowd of people waiting to board grew, so everybody was packed like sardines. Someone pushed Emilia but she kept her cool. When active military was called, Emilia followed her family onto the plane.

The plane was bigger than domestic planes, and was separated into three sections. Emilia walked past the first class section and to what the airline determined was the second expensive seat. The seats were domestic first class seats and not as cramped as economy seats. Emilia slid into the window seat and sat down. Her brother sat down in the seat next to her.

Once everyone boarded the plane, the plane started to taxi down the runway. Emilia rested her head on the window, and watched as the plane took off and the land got smaller. Emilia took one last glimpse at Houston and closed the window shade.

After being in the air for an hour, the flight attendants started to pass out dinner. A flight attendant gave Emilia her meal-a roll, chocolate truffles, a type of salad, and mushroom chicken with mashed potatoes. The chicken was bland, but the sauce gave it enough flavor. Emilia passed on the salad, and ate the roll and chocolate truffles. The truffles were extremely chocolaty and made a huge mess on the plastic tray.

After the trays were collected, the cabin lights were turned off and Emilia tried to go to sleep. Sleep was extremely important on long flights, and she knew that her family needed to hit the ground running. Before she went to sleep, she opened the window shade.

The sun was setting and painted the sky in light purple and red hughes. The clouds were painted a light shade of pink. Emilia quickly grabbed her phone and snapped a picture.

Onto a new adventure.