GRIOTS REPUBLIC - An Urban Black Travel Magazine - June 2016

Staying up all night the previous day had
made me tired. Very tired. So tired, in fact,
that for hours I had been in some weird lucid
state between exhausted and excited. Every
time I settled into a good sleeping position,
I found something new to focus on. For
example, the included meals on this flight
were surprisingly delicious - who knew! The
movies on the screen in the headrest were not
only current, but free! And the bathrooms in
this airplane were big enough to comfortably,
and finally, join the ranks of the mile-high
club!
Of course, these things were only small joys,
thoughts that popped up every now and then
between the feelings of unbridled excitement.
I was finally accomplishing what I had been
claiming since high school - moving abroad.
And today... today was the day that I boarded
my first transatlantic flight to start the rest of
my life living outside of the States.
Armed with only what could fit in a common
school backpack, my iPhone and my
international debit card, the last vestiges
of my (un)common American life were the
only things that kept me convinced that this
moment was real! Sitting in my cramped
American Airlines seat, all I could do was
smile as I reflected on how my life came to be
what it was.
With family vacations to the Caribbean and
Mexico starting in my teenage years, the
travel bug bit me early in life bit. The tipping
point was my high school class trip to Costa
Rica, the dream trip I couldn’t go on because
I had an internship. That’s when I made my