A couple of months ago, I planned a trip home to LA for my birthday. Before hitting “Purchase” on the red-eye flight I selected, I checked my itinerary and saw that my flight takes off on April 12th and lands in LA a day later on April 13th – my birthday. At that moment, the JetBlue confirmation page on my laptop made me realize that I’d be in flight, up in the air, as midnight rolls around and I turn a year older.
I didn’t think much of my flight’s timing when I booked it. “Just like any other trip,” I thought. But now, as I sit on this plane and look out my window to the once big city that’s now a sea of glistening specks, I reflect on this past year and realize the magical irony around my red-eye:
A year ago, about to turn another year older – (and hopefully wiser), I was unsure of the direction in which my life was headed. I was about to graduate college, look for a job, and continue on this so-called adventure that is adulthood. I didn’t have the strongest grasp on life; I had my doubts and truly felt like everything was up in the air.
Well, exactly a year later, as I fly deeper into my twenties, it seems I’ve ended up in the same place I was a year ago – up in the air, and quite literally. But this time, as I glide through clouds and weave through stars, buckled up in my window seat, I have a stronger sense of understanding, clarity, and self. It turns out that my initial feelings of uncertainty, curiosity, and even anxiety as to where life would take me post graduation, have evolved into emotions of pride, accomplishment, and even disbelief that I found my wings mid air.
In the last year, I graduated college and landed my first real job. I moved into a new apartment (and learned that you never have enough boxes or tape.) I found the humility to admit when I’m wrong, and the courage to affirm when I’m right. I cooked more (and burned more food than ever before). I met amazing new people that turned from strangers into friends, and I discovered some qualities about myself that were waiting to emerge.
Ironically enough, if I hadn’t experienced those moments of hesitation and ambiguity, when everything was up in the air, my feet would have never reached the ground to land where I am now. With that, I wonder: maybe being “up in the air” isn’t such a bad thing – maybe this stigma that lies around the phrase is misleading, (and maybe my most profound epiphanies come to me at 36,000 feet above ground).
They say life is a journey – but I have to disagree. As I fly home to LA and look forward to a new year, I realize that life is more like a series of flights – full of arrivals, departures, delays, and even turbulence. But if we embrace the bumps and enjoy the trip, perhaps we can see things from a new, refreshed perspective as we look down below. And when we feel like we’re helplessly floating up in the air with no solid ground below, it’s likely we’re really just on our way to our next destination.
Thank you all for partaking in my series of flights, and for being the best part of my itinerary, wherever life’s travels may lead me.
Yours, Always,
