This morning I woke up at 2:45 a.m. without any real struggle. I got up, worked out, ate breakfast, worked out again, showered, and waited for my family to wake up so we could go the the airport.
By 6:10, we were on the road and I tried to clear my mind a bit. We talked and joked and listened to Prince. I eventually brought up that I had been thinking about good departure songs and everyone in the car said they had been too. Mine was Peter, Paul, and Mary’s Leaving on a Jet Plane. It turned out my mom had been thinking of the same song. Almost immediately she began crying. Andy and I fell silent as I put my hand on her shoulder. At this point though, a slightly strange coincidence happened as Elton John’s Rocket Man came on over the radio. We were all amazed and continued on our journey.
We arrived nearly two and a half hours before my flight, dad was already waiting for us there. We walked in and stood around a bunch of empty seats and began nervously chatting. Every now and then, someone would mention that we should sit down, but instead Andy and I would continue to joke, dad would continue to laugh, and mom would continue to pace.
8:15 seemed like the time to go. We all said our goodbyes with Andy making sure everyone had a great thing to say before they let me go. Mom teared up again, I hugged each of them, and I walked to the beginning of the TSA line.
