Planes, Ubers, and Live Streams
Here’s a fun story for you:
I had the privilege of walking at my college graduation ceremony this weekend to commemorate my graduation from Liberty University in December 2021! This picture truly was an accomplished moment, but rarely do pictures give us the whole story, so I will let you in on this one.
Two days prior to the start of the commencement events, the university changed the time of the main ceremony from 6 pm to 9:30 am due to weather concerns. My flight was scheduled to get in at 8:30 am, so upon learning about the time change, I accepted the fact that I would have to be ready to hop off the plane and jump in line during the procession.
As the day approached, my parents and I made it onto our red eye flight that left California at 10:30 pm and got into Charlotte, North Carolina at 6:00 am. A little bit drowsy and disoriented, I changed into my graduation dress and dabbed on a small amount of makeup at the airport. From there, we boarded a small plane, with 3 seats per row, for a 40-minute flight into Lynchburg. The flight took off and within an hour we began our descent as the bright green tree tops and red Virginia dirt came into view.
As we neared the runway, the nose of the plane suddenly tipped upward and we started ascending to higher elevation. While sharing confused looks with the other passengers, the pilot announced over the plane’s crackly speaker that due to bad weather conditions, we would not be able to land. We were being re-routed to Richmond. An hour past the intended landing time, we arrived to the tarmac in Richmond and were notified that we would wait there until receiving a green light to land in Lynchburg. For the next two hours we sat in the plane waiting for another announcement from the pilot.
Fortunately, the main ceremony occurred within the exact same window we were on the ground in Richmond, so I was able to watch the live stream with my parents and other passengers.
Finally, the pilot came back on to announce that the weather issues in Lynchburg cleared up, so we took off for the 30-minute flight. One hour into flying, we noticed that our plane was circling and slightly dipping up and down in elevation. In a hesitant manner, the pilot’s voice came onto the speakers again to announce that we were unable to land in Lynchburg. We then flew back to Charlotte and were instructed to visit the customer service desk for new flights. Upon arriving to the front of the customer service line, we were notified that most flights into the area were booked for the day. We then regained some energy with airport pizza, and decided to take a 3-hour Uber ride into Lynchburg.
Ten hours past our intended arrival time, we made it into Lynchburg to enjoy a hearty meal at Texas Roadhouse with my grandparents. The next day, I walked in my business ceremony and enjoyed catching up with friends before flying out the next morning.
If you made it to the end of this story, thank you for embracing the pain with me for a few moments. Similar to this (now) laughable story, isn’t it funny how in life we often reach destinations a lot later than we wanted, and we arrive in a different mode of transportation than we had intended? Moments like these truly humble my desires to control and plan. Though the experience was unexpected, it is undoubtedly still memorable.
