My Plane Ride

Wednesday I took my first plane ride in almost 20 years. I find it funny that my first plane ride was to come into the United States and that my next one was to leave it. I'm glad I got the window seat; for as long as I can remember I wanted to experience and commit to memory what it's like taking off. At first I didn't feel much; it started like a bumpy car ride. Then we started to move faster, and the low hum from the plane got louder until it started to shake the plane. I felt a sudden lift accompanied with a sudden sinking feeling in my stomach, the kind I would get from sliding down the initial slope of a roller coaster, only lighter. I saw the entire airport and the layout of the Jersey Turnpike with all the cars en route to New York, American's metropolis. I found it hard to believe that just five days earlier I was one of those daily commuters just trying to earn a living for one thing or another. Now, I was on my way to another metropolis that laid at the heart of another country.
Slowly the cars began to shrink as we began our ascent. The layout of the turnpike slowly became the thick black lines I used to draw on the maps of imaginary cities when I was twelve. I saw the lowest lying clouds slowly come toward me, until I felt enveloped in what up until that moment I only knew from the ground, a mere admirer of the beauty of this earth. Sooner still, the sun returned and I could see were wisps of the highest clouds against the bluest sky I had ever seen in my life. I looked below; I was now above the clouds which only minutes before I had only seen from below.
Looking down at the earth, I was thinking about why I was there, where I was going, and could only describe the feeling like a dream; the best one I ever had.
Over the next four months I want to share with everyone my experiences while studying at ITAM in Mexico City. I will share photos, videos, and anything else I find everyone would enjoy. On my way to the airport on Wednesday morning, I told my parents how few people get the opportunity to study in a foreign country, and how luck I am. I wrote this post while waiting in line at customs, and the excitement, anxiousness, and overall exhilaration only built as I waited to live my dream.