In Salt Lake City, I was told I had a delay of two hours to Seattle. I had a three hour lay-over in Seattle, so I thought I would be fine... Oh how I was wrong. We were boarded on the flight, I was relaxing in my seat, when I heard over the intercom my worst nightmare, "Ladies and gentlemen, I'm sorry to inform you but our flight has been delayed another hour: orders from air-traffic-control." I felt my heart start racing. I was going to miss my connecting flight to Beijing! They were going to leave me! And then I wouldn't make it to Changsha! AHHHHH! You can probably imagine me sitting there in my seat kinda having a mental breakdown trying to keep myself from yelling. But I thought: I can't control this. Just. let. it. go. So, I took a deep breath, put in my headphones, and pulled out my deck of cards. 'Cause I couldn't do anything about it, so why be pissed?
We finally pushed back at 1 PM, me, knowing full-well that I wasn't making my connecting flight at 2. I remember thinking that and literally shrugging my shoulders. The lady next to me probably thought I was crazy. :) When we made it to Seattle, it was 2:02 PM. I may or may not have tried to sprint out of the gate almost knocking a little lady over, but she was fine. Don't worry. Yeah... I missed my flight... So, I thought, be pissed? nah. Not worth it! I tried to navigate through the Seattle airport (I got lost twice. That place is ginormous!) but finally made it to a help desk. I spent 40 minutes talking with a lady who was actually really nice, and I got an updated flight itinerary. Man. Today tried my patience, lemme tell ya. I was given a seat on a flight to LA, then connecting to Changsha at 1 flippin 40 in the AM! Yeah, it made my heart skip a beat when she told me that. BUT, I thought, I did it. I handled a crisis. BY MYSELF!
So, I boarded the flight that backtracked across the states to LA. The sunset was so gorgeous though. It was quite relaxing sitting there listening to my "folky pop" playlist
looking out at this beautiful view. I remember thinking, "my oh my, this life is wonderful." With views like these, even in the midst of all the chaos, I found myself offering a prayer of gratitude... Our Heavenly Father is so good to all of us. Even though I was so incredibly stressed, I found a moment of peace. I am so grateful for it.
I finally made it to LAX, got lost twice (yes, I do it a lot) but ended up making it to the Tom Bradley hangar. I boarded my flight at 1 AM, and promptly fell asleep. Nine hours later, I was awake. Full honesty here: I freaked out a little. I asked myself, "Why am I doing this to myself? Why am I subjecting myself to this?" But, I kicked those thoughts to the curb and decided to focus on how great of an adventure this would be. And it has gotten me through!
Take away: There is no reason to doubt Heavenly Father. There is no reason to not love the bright sides. There is no reason to not love the life you are living.
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