The Day I Lost a Day of My Life

I left Atlanta, Georgia at 3:20pm on Friday, July 29th and finally arrived in Melbourne (pronounced "Mel-bin"), Australia (after 2.5 hours delay in L.A. and an unexpected layover in Auckland, New Zealand) at 3:50pm on Sunday, July 31st. Leaving Atlanta was a mix of bittersweet feelings that never once subsided, but instead altered from varying degrees of nervousness, excitement and sadness as the days grew closer to my departure. Saying good-bye to friends, family and loved ones is one of my least favorite things to do, yet as the time inched closer to the X on the calendar, I had to squeeze in as many hugs as humanly possible and suck up those feelings.

Once the stress of packing and loading the car eased, I wave of nervousness overtook me as  I walked away from my wonderful mom and toward the security checkpoint in the Atlanta airport. The cold sweats did not stop until I was comfortably (or as comfortable as you can get in a 2ftx6ft space) settled on the airplane. The next long hours were nothing but a daze of sleep, eating, (listening to conversations held by obnoxiously unaware loud-mouths at 4am when they should be sleeping with the rest of the airplane population), and switching planes until I was on my final destination flight entering Melbourne. Up until this point, I remained relatively calm, but as soon as the plane closed in over the city and I could see from my window the new place I would soon call home, the panic re-entered my chest. These emotions, I am quite certain, was a direct result of knowing that quitting a perfectly good job, leaving all my friends and family and embarking on an unknown adventure in an unknown city just became reality.

That panic immediately subsided when I met my first Australian acquaintances (because no one is shy when you are deliriously waiting in an airport or sitting so close to someone in an airplane seat you feel a constant rub down your side). Hayley, Frankie and Rebecca because my instant reminder that Melbourne is an amazingly European-influenced city with great areas of music, nightlife, shops and eateries. We all exchanged email address to meet up at some point, and I was ready to take on my new adventure.

After retrieving my 3 extremely oversized suitcases (yes, they all arrived safely in Melbourne directly from Atlanta), I rounded the corner from Customs (with all my baggage haphazardly skewed on a luggage cart) and had a welcome party of dear family friends (Steph and her two kids Dailey and Austin) waiting for me with flowers in hand. It was a breath of fresh air! They scooped up my luggage cart and we headed toward the exit.

We advanced up a moving sidewalk ramp toward the door, excitedly talking and catching up on all the news, giving the kids hugs and WHOMP! - we hit the top lip of the ramp and there was an explosion of suitcases flying, the luggage cart over-turning, cell phones rocketing from hands, passengers piling up behind us, airport security rushing toward us to smash the emergency STOP button and of course there was me, catapulting over the pile on the airport floor, calling out desperately to a man passing by to, "Pleeeeassse heelllp ussss!"

And that was my GRAND entrance to what ever lies ahead of me and quite appropriately the beginning of me: Falling Down Under.