While making my pilgrimage back home, I neglected to both document and write about it, since I was very tired, and also just taking in my last moments on this wonderful trip. However, I still want to summarize it here, so the complete narrative of my trip will be here for me to read and reflect upon later on.
On April 5th, I woke up in the hostel in Dublin and hopped on the Airlink bus to get to the airport. From there, I went through security, which involved a two-step process in which I basically went through US customs before getting on the plane, so when I landed in Philadelphia I could walk off the plane as if it were a domestic flight. From there I got on the flight, which was maybe the most pleasant experience I have ever had on a flight. Over the course of the 7 ish hour flight I watched multiple episodes of How I Met Your Mother, the new movie Free Solo, Call Me By Your Name, and read my book about Kevin Mitnick. Besides the stellar entertainment, the food was actually really good too; my favorites were the mid-flight ice cream break, and the mini vegetable curry hand pies.
Once in Philadelphia, I Ubered to my older sister’s apartment, and immediately crashed. I woke up sometime around 4 AM, and read my book until I left around 9. Then I walked around the neighborhood and stopped at a cute small bagel place, where I had a really good BBQ Lox bagel sandwich, and picked up a rainbow bagel with birthday cake cream cheese for the flight. Then I took an Uber to the Philadelphia airport, and got on my flight to Los Angeles. There were many little kids, all of whom really loved to clap and bang their little fists against things within the plane. You can imagine how that flight went.
However once I landed and saw my parents I was really happy to be home. I felt like I could have stayed in Dublin or Manchester for many more months, but it was nice to see my family again after being in a new place for so long. After a 2 hour long car ride back to Claremont, I was able to finally say I was home.
It is now the day after I got back(Sunday, April 7th). I’m getting back into the swing of things, and preparing to return back to school since today is the last day of Spring Break. I am extremely grateful to have had the opportunity to go on this trip, and feel like I am now refreshed and ready to end high school. I really feel great, and am so excited to start some new projects and see what the future has in store.