I have had many tests over this trip coming to North Carolina. My first test was going to the airport. I mean, we looked online for cheap pricing. We flew on JetBlue, and the website said online that luggage had to be no more than 60 pounds. And anything over would be an overweight fee. So we arrived at the airport about 2 1/2 hours early. It’s me, my wife, and our two kids. We’ve got two bags that we need to check-in. I have my weapon in one bag, so I already expected that I would have to stay behind a little longer as they checked that. I go straight to the kiosk. While I’m at the kiosk, I check in the two bags. I’m thinking, “OK, yeah, one might be a little over 60 pounds. I can take something out. Well, whatever, that’s cool.” Then when we get to the front because after you check out at the kiosk, it says to go to the front of the line for all prechecked bags. So I take the bags to the front of the line. We waited in line for about 30 minutes.
Then one of the people comes over and asks, ” Are you waiting to check your bag?” We’re looking at this man and thinking: yeah, like, you’ve been pulling everybody from the line beside us already. Like we have not been standing here for a good ass second. What’s up? (Of course I didn’t say that. I’m working on holding my tongue.) Then the gentleman says, “put the bags up” so I put the bags up onto the scale. One bag is 78 lbs, the other bag is I think 61 point something. And the gentleman said, “OK, is that the actual weight?” I looked at him and was thinking to myself “if it’s not the actual weight do you expect me to be able to tell you what the hell the weight is? Do I look like a mother freaking scale to you?”, instead I respond calmly with a “yeah”. And then he replied with a soft-spoken, “OK, we have an overweight fee of $150”. alright, cool I replied until he said per bag. It was at that moment Danli realized that he messed up! I was like, yo, hold up, wait a minute, swerve. OK, cool. That’s 300. And the thing that got me was I can probably take some stuff out. He was like bags can only be 50 pounds. trying to calm my frustrated voice and body language I do my best to respond calmly with “on your website it says 60.” Just to get greeted with him saying no, it says 50. I was like, it says 60. But either way, that right there was when I started to realize that this is a test. PATIENCE!. OK, cool. but as I’m trying to pay the 300. He’s trying to charge me the additional $45 per bag, which I already paid.
I’m like, no, bro, I already paid that. He’s like, well, you still have to pay the check bag fee on top of the overweight fee. And I told him I said I already paid the 45 per bag, the $90.00 total for these two bags at the kiosk. I should only have left to pay $300. And then he goes and gets his manager. His manager comes over and confirms that, yes, he paid the $90. I then, right there, realized that this guy was new. So I told the manager it’s not an issue. He was like, are you military? I responded with I’m a veteran. And he took my veteran ID. He looks at it. He was like, oh, that’s not recognizing it. And right there, I was like, OK, cool. he seems like he is pretty cool. He at least tried to give me a discount or ease me in some way, and I appreciate his kindness and the gesture. I respect that. Thank you.
So I told the gentleman, look, I’m not really even stressing and I was going to pay for these bags and then take my other bag down to go ahead and get it checked by TSA since I got a weapon there. Alright cool. I went ahead and paid, took my bag down, and walked down to the oversized luggage. I’m walking with my son to take my bag down towards the oversized luggage, and when I get there, the gentleman opens my bag. The gentleman starts checking in my weapon case, wiping it down, making sure there’s no bomb-making material or explosives in there. Then he wipes down the inside of the weapon, making sure it was wrapped correctly. I’m talking with him, trying to make time go by faster. Then I realized that. My wife has all her hair products and everything in my bag. So he goes through and starts wiping each of her hair products down one by one. Her Shea butter, her gel, her spray, everything deodorant, everything. I’m like, bro. My son’s like, Daddy, what’s taking so long? I responded to his soft brown eyes that are looking up to me so eagerly awaiting a response with “this is a test”. The universe is trying to get us to work on patience. So what we have to do is be patient. My son says OK, Daddy. So the TSA guy is wiping all this down. And then my wife kind of like, I called my wife and she’s like, she’s like, what’s taking so long? I was like, babe, go ahead and go straight to the gate. He’s wiping down everything one by one. My wife responds, “oh, you alright?” I was like, yeah, we’re good, but it’s gonna take a little bit. So let us expedite the process. Go ahead and go to the gate. Because I am still determining exactly how long this is going to take.
The TSA guy gets done and apologizes for it taking so long. “Look, you’re just doing your job. I’m not stressing. That’s perfectly fine. I just gotta hurry up.” Luckily we showed up at the airport 2 1/2 hours early. I now have about an hour to get to the gate, but I still gotta go through security, and then like a miracle, the TSA gentleman gets done with my bag, picks it up off the metal counter, and tells me, you’re good to go. I was like, cool, and started walking with my son. I felt like he was walking too slowly, so I picked him up and briskly ran to the security checkpoint. When I get to security, there is a long line. I hear my daughter screaming ” Daddy ” as I get closer to the security line. So I know her mom was already a little stressed out, and then my son is yelling “Sissy” loud in the alleyway. The guy working the line asked me ” oh, your family’s up there?” I responded yes, and he told me “well, hurry and get to them” as he waves me through the express lane. But we see this line. He was like, take the express. Of course, I responded with a simple saying “word!?” He’s like, yeah, I was like cool. So I walked the express, lane to catch up with my wife and my daughter and my daughter’s yelling DADDY at the top of her lungs. I grab her and then I look back at the guy, the gentleman was motioning me to keep going. I was skeptical because the line was long, and I had already skipped most of it. hmm I thought, because in my head I’m not gonna just skip all these people and pull my wife and the other kid. So I just jumped into the line and waited with them, which actually turned out to be pretty cool anyway because the other man working the gate came out and started singing a little song about all the things that wouldn’t and couldn’t make it through security. I really enjoyed him.
So if he is reading this. Or anybody knows who that gentleman is? Tell him I said thank you. That really lightened the mood of the day. So Fast forward from there. We ended up landing in JFK in New York. We make it to our gate. They make the announcement that anybody with small children or need additional time to board can now board. I told my wife, go ahead and get on with the kids, I need to use the bathroom, she said. You sure? I said yeah. So she goes over to the gate with the kids as I go use the bathroom. I come back and waited for my group to board because I’m not gonna walk past these people when my kids are already on the plane. Just trying to be polite again, you know, treat others as you want to be treated. So my group gets called to board so I get over there quickly. I have my boarding ticket in my right hand and go to scan it when a loud noise like a buzzer sounds. The lady says that my boarding pass says it has already been scanned and I’m already on the plane. I look at her with a confused face and ask how is that possible if I’m standing right in front of you? She responds I don’t know. Did you grab a ticket from somebody? I said, no, I paid for this ticket and my wife and kids are already on the plane. I don’t know but you’re stuck here, she says. Well, it says that you’re already on the plane. I’m like, OK, So what do I need to do? I can’t let you on. It says that that ticket has been used. I sent my family ahead so that I could use the bathroom. I waited for my group to board then I came to you. I never scanned my boarding pass. There must be a mistake. I said as calmly as I could while the frustration built up in me. The lady said. I don’t know. At this time. They announced that the gate will be closing in the next 3 minutes. Then I end up hearing the final closing and I told the lady, “look, I’m not going to miss my flight to go see my family for Thanksgiving because y’all wanna claim that I’m already on this plane when I’m not. So can you send somebody there to verify that my ticket has not been scanned? There is nobody in my seat. And that my family is waiting on me”, she said. Yeah, I can. So she did that. And as they were saying that the gate was going to be closed, the gentleman that they sent in to verify my seat number calls back over the walkie talkies that I am good to go in. They let me on to the plane.
All in all, in this whole story what i learned and was trying to say is that the universe was testing me on a few lessons that I have failed many times before in the past. That was keeping my cool and my composure when I am clearly pissed off, remaining calm, staying patient, and believing that everything is going to work out in the end.
See too often people get wrapped up in emotions and neglect to think clearly. I feel that the lessons and test that we are put through is to put us back on our correct path, to align us with our true purpose, what we are here to do on this planet. The only way to do that is to learn the lessons and pass the test that we are tasked with and show that we are competent in the material. Everything that happens in your life has a good outcome, we just may not be able to see it yet.
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