D-day. Finally, after years of dreaming and planning for it, Lizzy is now going to make it happen. The day she has been waiting for all her life has now come.
Of course, since this is a big day, she had prepared everything a month before. From airline tickets to her daily outfits. Everything was ready, 30 days ago. She even finished packing her things a week before to make sure nothing will get left behind.
She put her things on standby for the whole week. A large carnation pink hard case luggage that carries her wardrobe, footwear, and some Filipino goods is comfortably sitting on one corner of her room, slowly starting to accumulate some amount of dust. A purple-pink medium-sized backpack is on top of it holding her old-fashioned iPad and all the things she would be needing for the whole duration of her travel. Inside of it, she has some chocolates, a bottle of drinking water, a pack of facial tissues, and some more stuffs only Lizzy knows what. Her black sling bag lies on her bedside table. This is where her important documents, cellphone, some analgesics and anti-allergic medications are in. That's the totality of her cargo.
Today, she woke up at 6:30 a. m. since she couldn't maintain a good sleep anyway. It must be because she's too excited for the trip of her life. She took a shower, fixed herself, and rechecked her bags for the nth time. Updating her SNS from time to time, she waited until the taxi that she called the night before to pick her up arrived at 8:30 a. m. She decided to take brunch at the airport.
The 30-minute ride to the airport was spent on thinking this and that. She's still not sure if the decision to go to where she's heading now is the right one. But then, she believes it's the best choice as of the moment. She's praying hard for everything to work out just fine.
At 9 a. m., she has already checked in and is looking for a place to eat, carrying with her the backpack and her favorite sling bag. She was arguing with herself whether to eat rice or not. After 15 minutes of roaming around, she gave in to her hungry cells and ordered some beef steak with a cup of rice, plus an ice-cold Coke. When she was done eating, she took her phone out and started making a call.
Ring. Ring. Ring.
Ring. Ring. Ring.
"Hello? Lizzy! Are you at the airport already?" someone screamed from the other line.
Lizzy slightly distanced the mobile phone from her ear as the voice almost broke her eardrum. "Mom, can you speak a little softly? You sound like a hungry hyena. Yeah, I just ate breakfast and lunch, and boarding time will be in an hour or so."
"Oh, okay. I'm still on my way to work so I can't talk for long over the phone. Call me or message me, or whatever, when you arrive at Busan, alright? Be safe and enjoy your flight."
"Alright, Mom. Bye! Take care!"
Lizzy left the restaurant and started to look for the boarding gate of her flight. She'll just spend her time there, just to be sure she doesn't miss out on any important flight detail announcements. Thirty minutes later, one of the airline crew approached the podium just five feet in front of her. The plane will now start boarding. A sudden attack of anxiety hit Lizzy hard right there and then. She took three deep breaths to calm herself.
"Okay. This is it. There's no turning back. Let's do this, Lizzy!" she said to herself while slowly standing up to fall in line with the rest of the passengers boarding for Busan, South Korea.
Inside the aircraft, Lizzy scanned the seat numbers over the plane seats. 22J. That was what's written on her boarding pass.
"Row 20, 21, and there it is, 22!" Lizzy almost screamed inside her head. Her seat was the one nearest to the window and she's the first one to reach that row. "Good spot! I'm lucky," Lizzy told herself while putting her backpack inside the overhead compartment. She quickly took her seat and looked outside the window until Row 22 was full, and until the plane was set to go.
The pilot was still giving his final announcements for the aircraft's departure but Lizzy's head is floating on the clouds already. A lot of things have been running through her mind and she can't keep still on her seat.
"Are you alright?" The old lady beside her asked, noticing her giddiness. "Hey, kid. I said, are you alright?" the lady repeated when she got no answer from the kid beside her.
"Ah, uhm... Yeah, yeah! I'm quite alright, Ma'am," Lizzy was cut off from her thoughts and she started to calm herself a bit, her face as pale as a blank sheet of paper.
"Is it your first time on a plane? If you're scared, you can just close your eyes."
This time, Lizzy managed to smile. "Thank you. I'm really fine. And it's not my first time."
It will be a four-hour flight from Iloilo International Airport to Gimhae International Airport but the first 15 minutes inside the airplane felt like 15 hours already for Lizzy. She doesn't know how to react. She's being excited and anxious at the same time. She has prayed 10 Our Fathers, Hail Marys and Glory Bes already but she can still feel her heart racing. And then, she decided to just sleep for the duration of the flight.
"This is Captain Jasper Hemsworth of Pacific Island Airlines. We have just arrived at Gimhae International Airport. Local time is 3:15 p. m. and outside temperature is 23 degrees celsius. In behalf of the crew of this flight, we welcome you to the Republic of South Korea. Enjoy your stay and see you again on your next flight. Thank you and good afternoon."
Like an alarm clock on a working day, Lizzy almost jumped out of her seat upon hearing the pilot's voice. She carefully and discreetly wiped out any evidence of saliva that managed to flow out of her mouth while she was asleep and looked out of the window.
"Wow! I'm really in Korea now," she told herself while making a tiny pinch on her left arm, just to make sure she wasn't dreaming.
Just as the plane had come to a complete stop, the passengers started rumbling about in the cabin; taking their things from the overhead compartments; standing along the aisle. Everyone's ready to go out but Lizzy is still somewhere, lost in her thoughts while looking at the vast runway where their plane had threaded.
"Hey kid! Aren't you going to get your bag from up here?" said the old lady from before. "We'll be going any time now."
Lizzy absent-mindedly turned to her and nodded. She took her phone out of her pocket and turned off the Airplane Mode. A series of beeps came and she immediately checked the messages. It was from her aunt who was going to fetch her from the airport. She made a quick reply and took her backpack from the overhead compartment and waited for the moment when she would finally be able to take a deep breath of her dream land's air.
