Campus

Campus

by Jay Lechwar

I was on my way to the airport, trying to stay calm, but my whole body was shaking. It was strange, I had flown to Germany multiple times before this, but now I was super nervous. I hit myself in the head.

“It’s because you’re gonna be staying there for more than just two months, stupid,” I thought to myself. I had decided to go to Germany for college. I toured the campuses there before with my dad, who had been staying in the country for 7 years due to work. After visiting so often I was pretty okay at the language, I wasn’t fluent or anything though, just okay. The college I picked out was in Bremen, but I was heading to see my father first and collect some of my stuff there, so I was flying to Berlin, the capital of Germany. The taxi driver looked at me through the rearview mirror before facing the road again. I could hear him rustling around in the seat in front of me.

“Nervous about your flight?” He asked, in a loud southern accent. I nearly jumped out of my seat before answering.

“Kinda, yeah, I guess so,” I spoke quietly, praying he wouldn’t ask me to repeat. He laughed, one of those deep old laughs.

“Don’t worry ‘bout it, m’ sure you’ll be fine,” He said as he nearly got to the point of yelling. He pulled up to the drop-off area and I paid him my debt before walking out and grabbing my bag and suitcase. I quickly walked towards the register, and proceeded to go through the long process of getting to the waiting area of my flight, which, since I had gotten here at 2:00 pm, ironically left at 2:00 am.

I woke up sitting with my side against a wall, I had fallen asleep on the bench. My phone rang, I was hesitant to pick it up, but my hand hovered around the bench, before picking up my phone and pressing answer while pulling it up to my ear.

“Knock knock, who’s this?” I said in the most enthusiastic voice I could muster in my groggy state. I heard laughing on the other side of the line and smiled.

“Hey Lucy, from that tone I guess I did wake you up, that’s good, your flight leaves in about fifteen minutes, make sure you're listening,” I laughed a bit too before answering.

“Okay, auntie, I’ll see you in a couple of hours, thanks for reminding me!” I said in a fun choice of tone. There was a pause before she answered me again.

“I’m not your aunt! Stop calling me that! Just wait and listen, I’ll see you later,” She yelled before hanging up. I laughed a bit and set my phone back and looked up at the large clock hanging up on the wall in front of me. The plane would arrive and I would get on at two, it would leave ten minutes after, and the flight would be sixteen and a half hours. I did the math in my head, before giving up, I needed to get ready, and rotting my brain with math I couldn’t do wasn’t going to help very much. I looked up into the cloudy Florida sky and sighed. I heard the announcer go off that those who were disabled or in strollers could now get on, and stood up. I walked closer to the area in front of the entrance area and sat back down in a smaller chair. I thought about it, but I probably wasn’t the right “disabled” to get on the plane early. I had fractured my left tibia, but it was almost healed and I could walk fine with my boot on.

They were letting on the rest of the passengers now, and I stood up to give the woman my ticket, before walking in with my bag on my back and my suitcase trailing beside me.

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