02 Nov, 2022
Like any planned trip or vacation, I get excited to go off on another adventure. I’m so excited that I’m normally packed, organized and ready to go three days prior to actually leaving. But on this one particular day, it felt like the universe was doing everything it could to prevent me from getting from point A to point B. I arrived at the airport two hours early like I’ve always been told to do. I checked my bags in with the airline and then I was off to TSA. It had been maybe ten minutes since I had arrived. It was smooth sailing, and I was feeling pretty proud thinking to myself I get to enjoy some coffee before I board my flight. I think maybe the universe was trying to humble me or just thought it would be fun to bring me on a wild ride. All I know is that I spoke too soon and should have kept my mouth shut instead of jinxing myself!
You know the line through TSA is long when you only need to walk a few steps away from luggage check-ins. This line was long. So long, you would think you were in line for Space Mountain at Disneyland. Unfortunately, there were no churros or Disney music playing, it was just the sound of children crying, couples arguing and TSA yelling to have our identification out and ready. I still tried to keep optimistic. “This is why you arrive two hours early” I thought to myself. I stood in line for 45 mins before I was even remotely close to the nearest TSA agent. Forty-five minutes. To this day, I’m still trying to process why it took so long! When I finally arrived at the TSA agent, they scanned my ID and directed me to another line. At this point, I only had a medium size carryon. I kept to the three-ounce golden rule, took out my electronics and put them into a separate bin, took my belt and jacket off and waited patiently. The people in front of me were obviously not avid travelers. They were stopped for having full water bottles and sodas in their bags and not taking everything out of their pockets. Little mistakes but TSA was not having it. When they were finally cleared, it was time for me to pass through. Success! I had walked through with pride and my head held high. Nothing to see here, I just needed to grab my bag and go. One step closer to coffee! It wasn’t until I walked through that threshold that I saw this really tall TSA man holding my bag with the look of anger, like he caught me red handed trying to smuggle in a bunch of puppies. “Is this YOUR bag?”. I gulped, “um, yes?”. He then asked why I had full size shower items. I was confused because I knew I didn’t pack those items, again, I followed the three-ounce golden rule! Well, I guess my look of confusion angered him more because he took everything out of my bag, and not in a gentle way. As if he was trying to get to the bottom of the crimes I supposedly committed, and he could yell out a big “AH-Ha!”. But to his surprise, not mine, there was nothing of the sorts. He then adjusted his shirt and pushed my bag over and simply said “carry on”. To which my sassy self said, “why yes, it is” as I grabbed my bag and repacked everything.
