Misfortunes of a Girl [Danisnotonfire]

Chapter 1: Moving to London

I stoodawkwardly in front of the passport scan, not able to do it as I wassupposed to.

"Ma'am,you need to press your passport down firmly and stand behind theyellow line. Look into the camera with a straight face.", the womanwho obviously worked at the airport informed me. Of course, I haven'tbeen to any of these scans at all, because it just so happened that Ihaven't been traveling by plane since I moved out of my parents'home. And that was a longtime ago.

Okay,maybe not thatlong, I'm 24, not 42.

"I've done the exact thing, it just doesn't seem to be working",I explained and the lady suddenly held out her hand.

"May I see your passport?", she asked. She was kind of annoyed,by the way, but I gave her the object without protest.

She looked at it thoroughly while studying my face. After a while,she handed me my passport back.

"The photo seems a bit old, maybe it can't recognize your face. ButI do. You may go through there.", she told me, gesturing to theentrance to the right.

"Thankyou.", I said, leaving relieved. Great. Now,thatwas embarrassing. And I thought the ProVisionscan was a hell. I really hate being the center of attention.

AfterI got my bags, I got onto the tube quickly, making myself comfortablefor a long train ride. It was so weird to be in this... well,metropolis. London was the exact opposite of my hometown, but in alot of ways similar to Oxford, where I've studied. One of the thingsI was proud of. My lack of a social life somehow acquired me ascholarship at Oxford University, where I majored in MolecularBiology.Sounds lame, but I liked it. And now, after all these years, I'mabout to do something else entirely.

Why?,you ask. Apparently, I'm suffering from an existential crisis and Ineed to reevaluate my life choices. What I'm doing? Currently, I'mworking as a waitress. Why waitress? I wanted to get out of Oxford asfast as possible and preferably notdo something that has anything to do with my subject. Waitress, itwas then. But not forever.

Weirdlyenough, my parents gave their blessings, but didn't seem too happyabout it. Of course not. BachelorandMaster inMolecular Biology andgoes off to be a fucking waitress. I was going to get a doctor titletoo.

My plan was now to focus on solving my personal problems. I hadbought several books on happiness and fulfillment and literally threweverything I owned in the trash and replaced my belongings. Newclothes, new furniture, same old piano and some of my old bookspaired with lots of new ones, focusing on psychology and improvingoneself. Pretty drastic change, after all, about a year ago, the maintopics of my books used to be biology and romance.

I thought about the 'old' times a little more, while looking out ofthe train's window, until I drifted off.

I woke up, when I heard the name of my destination. The train hasalready stopped and I jumped up panicked. I almost missed my station!

In a hurry, I threw everything of my scrambled belongings in myluckily large purse and quickly grabbed my luggage. The beeping ofthe doors began and I almost got caught by the deathly trap as Iescaped into the tube station.

Icould swear that my heart was beating twice as much as usually andmaybe I tasted a little bit of blood. Academical, but definitely notathletic. Yoga, Pilates, dancing... okay, but running? Not down forit.

As I pathetically made my way to the escalators to exit the LondonUnderground, I texted my mum and my dad that I made it safely toLondon and that I'll call them later. Although I very much lovedthem, I didn't want to keep too much in touch as long as I lived inLondon.