I was enjoying life as I've been contented but missing something. I never expected my life to change at a young age. I never knew I was going to ever fly in a plane though I know my parents were out of the country.
On the last month of year 2000, we were supposed to fly to Hawaii, we had our papers together, plane tickets, passports and everything but we never expected that we were going to be delayed due to traffic. My siblings and I weren't ready to fly, at least we thought we didn't. I personally cried and hoped and prayed hard for us not to continue and we succeeded.
We had to reschedule our flights, we had to prepare again so we could fly already. This time on the month of February, 2001. We travelled to the airport more than 12 hours before our flight to make sure that we don't miss it again, the travel usually take more or less 10 hours to get from our house to the airport so we really had to get there early. We had to check in at least 1 hour before the flight. The travel wasn't good for me because I always vomit whenever I travel far. I had to take bonamine for motion sickness and just sleep as long as I can until we get to our destination. We knew this time that there was no turning back. We were really going on an airplane.
The first time riding a plane, I was scared, what if I vomit inside the airplane? what if I can't sleep? what if we crashed? what if I pass out? Well none of that happened. I was actually able to sleep, I was able to move around. I only remember the lights that I had to tell the flight attendant that I want it off. I remember them asking me what I wanted to eat and drink. They were so friendly that I actually enjoyed my ride, it was so cold inside that I had to cover myself with my blanket, I was so small back then so I fit haha.
When we got there, we were greeted by people and said "Aloha, Welcome to Hawaii" though that wasn't our destination yet, we still had to ride another small plane to get to our destination. When we got to our destination, we were greeted with flower leis, they put the leis on our necks and smiled. "Aloha, Welcome to the Big Island"
We had to get our bags and waited for our other luggages to come through. My uncle was already waiting outside for us with his truck. When he saw us, he took our luggages, put it in the back of his truck and he arranged the inside of his truck so we could fit. We got there around evening time already so there was lots of lights, I was so amazed by the lights that I saw, we drove by a lot of stop lights, literally.
When we got home, we put our bags down and went to freshen up before going to bed, we were so exhausted from the flight. We had to take two airplanes for our first flight out of the country, to say that the flight going there was smooth is an understatement. My siblings and I was so scared we were going to get left by the plane, we stayed close to mom, we were running to get to where we were suppose to check in. We only got to relaxed on the way home.
Couple days passed and we went to check the school if we were accepted, what grade we were going to be put in. What were the requirements. We were asked to take a test to see what academic level we had. By this time, in the Philippines I was in fifth grade, my sister was in sixth grade and my brother was in second. When we took the test, we were asked if we wanted to advance to the next grade instead of staying in the grade we were in, we decided no. I stayed in 5th till the end of the school year which was in June, sister and brother did the same stayed in their grades.
I got along with my classmates pretty well and got to meet a classmate that was actually my neighbor. Only a fence was separating our house or yard. If she invite me over, I would just climb over the fence and go to her house and did the same going home. I could walk over to her house but that would take a couple of minutes because I had to go around the neighborhood so I always take the shortcut.
May came and we had to participate as a class. We had to dress up in flowery dresses and had to wear fresh flower leis that we made. We had to bring in flowers that was picked from the neighborhood so we could make them ourselves with the help of our teacher. I still remember the song we had to sing for that day, May Day, the song was called "Hawaiian Superman", it was a song with actions like the one we had in Philippines which was "Jubilee Song".
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to be continued..
My first flight, I had to go alone!! It was scary but it felt like a rollercoaster ride for me, it was a great experience! 😂🤣