“Steven Helfer, you will not be attending this flight” were the worst words I could hear at the start of summer 2013. It was suppose to be the best summer vacation yet and everyone in my entire family was stoked. We planned months a head for it and eagerly waited for the date until we departed to the island of Turks and Caicos. It was finally the day we left and everything was running smooth the morning of our flight, until one thing that was so critical went missing. This mishap or I can say TRAGEDY caused a big delay, that I wish didn’t transpire.
It was truly the best example of a good vacation gone wrong at first. It was 5 am on the day we left and I was comfy in a perfectly wrapped burrito blanket. I could already hear my mom yelling, “GET UP, WERE LEAVING AND WE ARE WAITING ON YOU” in a hurried voice. Me, not being a morning person, woke up late and I was supposed to be already out the door. I got up and Dashed through the house grabbing all my luggage, while my family waited for me in the car. “Come on! Were going to be late” is all I heard from my Dad, as I walked out and he closed the garage behind me.
When I finally got in the car, my mother made sure everyone had everything and we were all set to travel as I started to doze off ignoring her. I soon woke up as my Dad was parking the car in one of the parking garages at DIA. We were already somewhat late and were basically running to the luggage check in. Everything went smoothly as normal until we had reached the security. “Passports and ID out” said the officer in charge of the checking in process. Everyone in my family pulled out their passport and then the panic began when I couldn’t find my passport.
I rapidly started going through everything we currently had on and nothing. We approached the officer when it was our turn and explained what had happened, that I might have left it at the house or in the car. It was too late to turn around being that our flight took off in the next 20 minutes. I knew what had to happen and that was to let my family leave without me at that very moment. It was the saddest moment leaving my family behind, but there was still hope for me.
The officer said if I had left my passport at home then I can still catch a flight the next day, being that there aren’t many flights to the destination I was headed to. I got the keys to the car and left the airport on my long journey. When I arrived I began frantically looking for the passport and there it sat. It was on my floor in my room and boy was I happy, but still sad this all happened because of my forgetfulness. I decided to get some rest and I even woke up 2 hours before I even had to be at DIA.
When I got to DIA the weather was so traitorous, they had to cancel my flight till later that night. My patience was at an all time low and time was my worst enemy. I sat down on an uncomfortable airport chair and slowly dozed off until the sound of my Iphone’s alarm was blaring through my ear via headphones. It was time to board the plane and my happiness was unbearable. As a long story short, we had a great vacation on the beautiful island of Turks and Caicos and everything worked out.
