The Trip

So I originally wrote this for an article in the University of Utah's Daily Chronicle but they decided to push it back a few weeks so I decided to post it here instead...lucky you, enjoy:

I knew I had this guest column due just a couple of days after I arrived to complete my internship in Brussels, Belgium. I was hoping that something really funny, odd, or exciting happened along the way so that I could share it with everyone who happens to read this, but, I am sorry to report that the plane didn’t go down, air marshals were not deployed mid-flight, and I didn’t even get to experience the enhanced pat downs as I went through security.

About the most exciting thing to happen through most of the trip was that as I was boarding one of my flights, I accidentally rammed a guy with my carry-on baggage. If he happens to be reading this, I am sorry again. (I won’t mention the fact that you were flying first class so getting your foot ran over by my carry on bag couldn’t have been that big of an inconvenience…could it?)

On my flight from Salt Lake to Atlanta, the plane had seatback TVs and I didn’t figure out until about an hour before we landed that I could access more than just the in-flight programs they offered. Somehow, this happened to be one of the best parts of the trip. I ended up watching an episode of How I Met Your Mother and, don’t mock, but it spoke to me.

Since this was the first time I had ever seen the show, I don’t remember the characters names so you are going to have to bear with me. Two of the characters decided to get married and set the date for a short two months away and the future bride was going a little bit bridezilla as they were trying to get everything selected and organized. Finding a band created a dilemma because the bride wouldn’t sign off on the band until she heard them play and was sure the band could play their “song”.

As luck would have it in sit-com world, the only way for her to hear the band was to attend a local high school’s prom where the band was playing. To get in, she and one of her friends asked/forced two kids without dates to take them. Throughout the night, she had flashbacks of her own high school prom, break-up with her boyfriend at the prom, and first year of college where she met her now fiancé.

I’ve got my own high school prom stories, but the part that really seemed to strike a chord with me was when she had a flashback to her first day at college. She was, like many of us I would imagine, an idealistic freshman with hopes of traveling Europe and getting out on her own. She was excited about learning and just knew that she was going to change the world. Now, in hindsight, she hadn’t accomplished what she had set out to do, at least she thought.

I think that we all have visions of grandeur when we first enter college and that’s a good thing. It’s good to be idealistic, it’s good to set goals, and it’s good to have dreams. The problem is we often define ourselves by what we haven’t accomplished instead of what we have. So while I didn’t get the crazy European story (yet) on my flight over, I learned to enjoy the moment I am in and appreciate what I did get to experience. Here’s to hoping that the next three months will be just as fulfilling.