My real life laughs and giggles: my first and only flight experience.

Introduction

My friend @wakeupkitty invited me to take part in this contest, and I was thinking of a funny story that had happened to me to share with us here on Steemit until I read @chant's post. I remembered my experience flying in a plane for the first time ever. The security thought I was a terrorist. It wasn’t funny then.

I know you will be interested to hear all that happened, so just sit back, relax, and read till the end.

The Abuja Trip

I traveled to Abuja by bus all the way from Port Harcourt for a cousin’s wedding. The journey was really stressful. It took us 13 hours to reach our destination. In between the journey, we had to take a 30-minute break to eat. I stayed in Abuja for about 2 weeks.

I was now thinking of the long-distance journey I would have to go through again, sitting in a tight spot for another 13 hours. My kid sister decided to surprise me by booking a flight for me. I was really excited because it was my first time.

I left my house an hour before the flight time so that I could meet up because I thought I had enough time. Besides, Abuja had a good road network; there was no way there would be any traffic jam on the road. Unfortunately, the day I was traveling was the day America was telling its citizens to leave Nigeria because of a security threat they received from terrorist groups in Nigeria. I wonder where they got such reports.

The Nigerian government responded by putting police checkpoints everywhere in Abuja. The traffic jam was so crazy, and I had already made up my mind that there was no way I would miss my flight, especially since it was my first time. I had to drop off from the public bus and charter a taxi straight to the airport to avoid any more delays.

I got to the airport 7 minutes before my flight was to leave, and I saw another long queue. They were doing security checks, and it was taking so much time. I was becoming impatient because my flight was about to leave, and I couldn’t let that happen. I started running down with my backpack. I heard some security men shouting at me to “stop.” I pretended not to hear.

A few of them started jogging towards me, telling me to stop. Immediately, I increased my speed, heading towards the airport, looking for my flight. People who saw police officers chasing after me started running away from the queue, thinking I was the terrorist they were looking for. I didn’t even know such news was already on the air. The airport officers were almost running away from their seats.

I didn’t know about the extensive procedures of even removing my shoes and belts for the checkup. I was just running around the airport, waving my ticket in the air and shouting that I was looking for the “Air Peace” plane and that I was very late. People started laughing at me. I thought I was supposed to give my flight ticket to the air hostess on the plane. In fact, I was the comic relief that day in the boring airport.

Someone was kind enough to tell me that, I should thank my stars that my flight had been delayed, if not, I wouldn’t have been allowed on board in the plane. She said I can calm down now. The security agents were there watching me all along, allowing me to display my craziness. When I was done, they arrested me. Passengers started begging them to leave me, saying that from my behavior they should understand it was my first time. They didn’t even bother to listen.

They took me to one of their security rooms for a thorough search to see if I was carrying a bomb like a terrorist… lol. They started interrogating me, asking who bought the flight ticket for me. They refused to release me until it was time for the flight to leave. Immediately I came out, all eyes were on me, like I was a celebrity. The police officer now showed me the officer to whom I should give my ticket. Then they took me to a place where I would remove my shoes and belt. I was almost removing my trousers when they told me it was enough and that I could go through the metal detector.

They gave me back all my property. Out of shame that I had embarrassed myself because I didn’t want to miss my flight, I just went to one corner of the airport, sitting down like a pussycat until we were told to board the plane. When I finally entered the plane, all my excitement came back again. I was just smiling unnecessarily.

The air hostess came out, telling everyone to switch off their phones. Some girls sitting in front of me refused to switch off their phones because they wanted to take pictures. I told them to switch off their phones. They said their phones were in flight mode. I didn’t want to take that risk, even if it was in boat mode, in a plane that had already left the ground.

I had to signal the air hostess and report that the girls had refused to switch their phones off. They told her it was in flight mode. The air hostess then explained to me not to bother. Each time the plane had some bumps or little shaking in the air, I would blame the girls, saying it was their fault because they had refused to switch off their phones.

Thank God we arrived safely. A journey that took me almost 13 hours by road took me 45 minutes by air. For some weird reason, those girls I reported became friends with me. I didn’t know they noticed me when I was embarrassing myself in the Abuja airport. That has been the only time I’ve ever taken a plane, but it was a bittersweet experience.

image source : A. I images were created by me using using bing