One of the things I learned about on my study abroad is the value of keeping a cool head and realizing everything is going to be alright. One week I was traveling alone in the grandiose city of London. I was preparing to leave London and my flight to Budapest was at 2:00pm So, naturally, I try to get their two hours early; that’s what you’re suppose to do, ya know. So. I’m sitting on my bus, watching Les Miserables and enjoying life. However, I think to myself, “How weird is it that my flight from Budapest to London was at 2:00pm and that it’s the same time on the way back…” I hurriedly pull out my ticket to check the time and in big bold letter it says flight leaves at 12:15pm. Holy crap! “Okay, don’t freak out.”

My bus arrives at 12:00pm and I grab my luggage and take off running. I get to security and the line is long but luckily the dude at the front let me skip him (shoutout to dude). I throw all my stuff off and ask the lady, “Yo, I need to take my shoes off?” She’s like, “Nah, you good.” Walk through the detector, my shoes set it off. I have to wait to get patted down. The clock is ticking. I finally get passed security; I put my shoes on (don’t tie them) grab my belt (don’t put it on), my jacket, throw my backpack over one shoulder, grab my small luggage and take off running. So here I am dashing through London Stansted airport sweating bullets as I hold my pants up, trip over my shoelaces, and drop my mittens and accessories that I am also carrying. I looked like a damn fool, I’m sure. A few women verbally expressed their concerns, “Shoes untied, jacket barely on, he must be in a rush,” They had no idea. The monitor says “BUDAPEST FINAL CALL”. My gate is 10 minutes away walking but I’m running so I make it there in 4 mins. OH MY GOODNESS there are still people boarding! I MADE IT. I throw all my stuff down and take a breath…go to pull out my passport and ticket…”where’s my passport?” In my frenzy to get to my gate I dropped it at security; I missed my plane. “Okay, don’t freak out.”

This was specifically bad because it was the end of Spring Break week and I had a huge project due the next day (that I admittedly had not done nearly enough work on). The security eventually was able to give me my passport back and then I found out that there were no more flights from London Stansted to  Budapest. “Okay, don’t freak out.”

I looked up prices for nearest airports to Stansted, found a flight to Budapest, made sure that I could get a bus there and headed out. I arrived in Budapest the next morning at 2am and stayed up all night to finish my project.