The fact that I made it on time for this flight is a Christmas miracle in itself. Not only did I oversleep, traffic to get here was terrible and the lineup for all the holiday travelers seemed never ending. If I had missed this flight it would have been horrible because this is the first time I have gone home for Christmas time since moving out five years ago. It wasn't that I didn't want to go home for the holidays, but being the personal assistant to a big time music executive doesn't always allow for time off. With my boss going home himself this year meant that I got to go home too.
To say I wasn’t nervous about this trip home would be a lie because I was very nervous. I'm not nervous to see my family, I'm nervous for all the questions that I know they will be asking. They will ask questions like, “How’s work,” “What’s your apartment like,” “ How can you live in such a big city,” “What are your friends like,” “Any cute boys around,” and “Are you happy out there?” My answers will be, “Work is demanding and exhausting,” “The city is nice, but something you have to get use to,” “I barely see the two friends I have since I work so much,” “ There are a lot of cute boys, but I don’t have anytime for them,” and “Define happy.”
The truth was I had been so unhappy lately I had been debating if I should pack up my things, move back home, and start all over. I was hoping that my seat on this flight was next to someone who didn’t wanted to talk as much as me so that I could spend my entire 6 hours on this flight and do nothing but think about what I was going to do. As I walked to my seat I was happy to see a man, probably my Dad’s age, already laying back looking like he was sleeping. I decided I would try the same thing seeing as take off is always a little nerve racking for me. I thought this trick of falling asleep before take off might actually work until I felt the plane starting to back up.
“In and out, just breath in and out.” The man next to me was no longer sleeping but instead was looking at me, breathing in and out, trying to get me to copy him. I followed his lead because something about him made me automatically trust him and feel safe. Whatever he made me do was exactly what I needed to get through the initial take off because by the time we got to the cruise section of the flight I felt calm and relaxed.
It was about three hours into that flight when I was pulled out of my thoughts by the man sitting next to me because he asked, “Are you going home for the holidays?” I told him I was and asked if he was as well which is how the small talk between us began. It was during this small talk that I learned the man sitting next to me was named Nick, he and his wife didn’t have any children of their own but fostered children often, and that he had a job that caused him to travel a lot, especially during the end of the year. He made it so comfortable to talk that I even opened up to him and told him I was so unhappy lately and was contemplating moving back home.
Nick asked me, “ Do you think if you moved back you would regret it and be even more unhappy?” I hadn’t thought about it or been asked in that way, so when he did it took me back a bit. Would I be happier if I moved back home or would everything be the same just in a different place? The next hour of our flight both Nick and I sat in silence while I thought about the things that make me happy. To be honest there was only one thing that truly made me happy and that was being around the people that I loved and that loved me back: my family and friends. As I got up to walk around and stretch my legs I figured out that the real reason I had been unhappy lately was because I had been away from the people that make me happy for so long. As soon as realized this I walked back to my seat to tell Nick, but when I got there he was gone. In his seat there was a note instead.
Day 274- A Christmas Story
It read, “ Sorry about leaving before the flight was done, but I had work to get to work and I knew you would figure out the answer to your question before the flight was over; enjoy your family tomorrow on Christmas and good luck on your move back home- Sincerely, Saint Nick.”
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