An Emotional Travel Experience Going Home

Well my trip to visit my mother is winding down and it’s been quite a trip. My emotions have been on red alert and life took me down hard. From a mess of a trip up to an eye appointment that left me feeling numb inside. A feeling I don’t like to show my mom and I failed and let it be shown.

At the start of my stay, things were looking good and my excitement level was at a high. I haven’t seen my mother in roughly 6 months which is by far one of the longest. My mom is my world and I missed her so much. She is my biggest supporter and crutch with this disease. I try my best to stay strong for me and her and shield her from it all.

Flight jitters and delays

Well the morning of my flights started like a bad dream. Started with the worse night of sleep possible followed by a kitchen infested with ants. Luckily my friend took care of the ants and I struggled to get ready. During my frantic start, I was informed of delays to my first flight. Normal but it was pushing me to have to get from flight one to the next. I would have minutes to get to it after landing. Then within a matter of minutes it was delayed even further to where I was rebooked to a much later flight.

Tired me was getting stressed out and not looking forward to this journey. So I just chugged some coffee and headed to airport. I get there and the company was very nice and gave me pre board ticket so I could be first on due to my vision which was greatly appreciated to calm my anxiety. Things were looking better at this point and made my first flight no issue.

Then comes the long wait at the airport for my new flight which left me in the airport for 5 hours. My eyes were getting tight feeling and all my body wanted to do was lay down and sleep. It was rough and with a delay to my new flight, it was about time to finally board.

Discrimination on the plane

The area was in chaos and I quick ran up to the woman who would be boarding the plane. I explained my situation and just wanted her to kinda move me in the direction of where to wait. I was blown away at her reaction.

She looked me up and down and asked what was wrong with me. I stood there puzzled and asked what she meant. She continues on with you don’t look handicap. Before I could speak a passenger shoved me away saying her husband had real issues and to get out of the way. I quickly stated I was visually impaired and just wanted to know where to line up because it was a mob of people and my anxiety was at a hundred. The worker just said to go against wall and she would get to me when she got to me.

My eyes reared up. My emotions were running wild and I just wanted to cry. I understand I can pull off not being visually impaired pretty well but to be questioned like that and having another person say I had no issue just broke me. I understand there are individuals out there that may lie about being disabled and they don’t know me or my disease but it hurt.

So I waited quietly til she let me get on. Flight went as smooth as it could and I made it home. My mom picked me up and I just felt so defeated but released it was over.

This was one of my worst experiences with this airline. But it was over and I could finally get some sleep and start fresh on morning. I should have just stayed in bed that day and moved flight around. That’s all I thought when I finally got into bed