Flying Solo, from the New World to the Mother Country

The countdown started at 123 days, when we finally clicked "book flight" to London Heathrow Airport for one single "adult." I was off to England for the 16th time, and for the first time completely alone. 

 It was strange waving goodbye to my parents and being the one left standing in the airport. The sudden realization that I was truly on my own struck with an accompanying sense of freedom and restless excitement. Shuffling my way through security, I couldn't help but remember the over 25 times I had gone through the same process; in the early years, clutching my American Girl doll, fingers clasped around the straps of a backpack full of crayons, coloring books and the token Barbie. And then, on to electronics and a good read. But the biggest difference now was that there was no one in front of me to follow, no one to hold my passport, and no one to buy me sushi on the other side of security.  

When I finally reached the first passport check, the guy looked around for my companions. When he found that I had none, he looked at me with sympathetic curiosity but he said nothing, and I moved on. They had blocked off the conventional metal detectors. Instead, I had no choice but to step cautiously into the newly installed body scanners, legs apart, and arms up like I was already being stuck up for carrying some potentially lethal weapon like a deadly knitting needle or explosive coconut body lotion. 

I had restored my cowgirlish boots to my Valentine's Day-socked feet that I had hoped no one would see, and picked up my carry-on full of cornbread mix and Girl Scout cookies. These gifts to my hosts  were some of the most American foods I could think of. Plus, who doesn't like cornbread and Girl Scout cookies??

As I walked to the gate, there was the sushi restaurant to my left and the trashy magazine shop to my right ... How familiar it all looked, and how strange it was to walk on past, alone. 

I arrived at the gate forty-five minutes before boarding time, that would have been spent eating sushi under normal circumstances. So, what is a 16-year-old sitting alone with a bag of cornbread and Girl Scout cookies to do? Listen to "Young, Wild and Free" and read The Hunger Games, of course. 

When the plane doors were finally latched shut, and the plane was rolling steadily toward the runway, they suddenly announced that a passenger had not made it onto the plane and that we needed to return to the gate to remove their luggage. Ten minutes later, we were sitting patiently as the airline "unloaded" their bag when it was announced that their luggage had never actually made it on the plane in the first place. If ever there was a time for the text phrase "smh" -shaking my head- it was then. 

With a last American tweet of "Cheerio America, I'm off to the mother country! ;)", the plane took flight, the bay glided underneath and the houses shrunk to sizes too small for even Polly Pocket. Failing, as always, to locate my house below, we ascended above the clouds where the sun had left a sky of darkening blue and pink. 

In the next 11 hours, I did SAT work, slept in two-hour intervals and ate pasta that looked like catfood with the smallest "meatballs" I had ever seen. They would have been more appropriately classified as "meat marbles." 

5,371 miles, 10 hours and 49 minutes later I descended into the country of rolling greens, narrow streets and mushy peas once again. At the immigration lines I glided on through to "UK citizens." I proudly handed the TSA officer my red and gold, royal English passport. 

"Are you alone?" he asked. I answered yes and he asked if I had ever traveled alone, then who I was seeing here and what I was doing. For all he knew, I could have been running away.

Walking out of the final set of doors and into the main entrance to London Heathrow, it felt like a scene out of Love Actually. 

So, to end the beginning of my adventure with a quote; "Whenever I get gloomy with the state of the world, I think about the arrivals gate at Heathrow Airport ... It seems to me that love is everywhere. Often it's not particularly dignified or newsworthy, but it's always there - fathers and sons, mothers and daughters, husbands and wives, boyfriends, girlfriends, old friends ... Love actually is all around." ~ Hugh Grant, Love Actually