One trip, three transportation means.

The first time I saw what an airport looked like was in 2022 when I travelled to a location far away from home and had a history of road attacks and robbery. One of my uncles volunteered to sponsor the trip. [Source](https://www.pexels.com/photo/white-airplane-over-the-white-sky-112116/)

Prior to this time, I’ve had many opportunities to visit the airport via trips organized by my primary school, and other organizations, but we were financially incapable of affording the trip. In 2022, when the opportunity came, I couldn’t reject it because I had anticipated visiting the airport and seeing what an aircraft looked like.

The date was fixed and my uncle already booked the flight tick. It was an early morning flight that was supposed to go straight to Kaduna.

I was nervous because I didn’t know what it would feel like being on the plane for the first time. I watched YouTube videos and read online on the things I needed to do first. I had no idea what it would feel like, and knowing there was nothing I couldn’t learn online, I opted to do just that. I remember a movie I saw where they said taking off used to be so rough, so you had to hold on tightly. I’ve learned everything I needed, so I thought. I packed my bag, and I was ready to embark on the beautiful journey. Now, it was the morning of the trip.

My first time at the airport, and I missed my flight. It wasn’t a funny experience. After some back and forth, I changed the location to Abuja. The flight didn’t take off until 4pm in the evening.

I got on the plane, and I sat beside a sweet gentle man who helped me fix my seat belt. He tried to teach me how to fix it myself many times, but I think the anxiety I felt didn’t let me grab a thing. So, he helped me fix it. When it was take-off time, I clenched my fists, closed my eyes, and on the instruction of the flight attendants, I turned off my phone.

I didn’t know when we got to the sky because the take-off wasn’t as rough as I had anticipated. When I opened my eyes, I saw this gentleman’s eyes fixated on me. He smiled and said, “is this your first time?” and I responded yes.

We got talking until about 2 hours later when we landed in Abuja airport. “That was fast”, I said to no one in particular. I went for my bag and off I went to where I would spend the night.

Pexels

The next day, off I went to the train station. It was my first time on a train too. Based on the experience of my friends, I anticipated a fun, and smooth journey, however, I didn’t get anything close to it.

The trouble of boarding the train that morning is not what I would wish to experience again. First, tickets finished selling before 6:00 am, I mean how? Secondly, I had to buy at a black-market rate to be able to join the train. I was in a hurry, so I had no choice but to buy.

We got going and the journey wasn’t as interesting as I thought. The path was so lonely that I started imagining things happening on that train track. But thank goodness, we arrived Kaduna safely, alighted, and I went to board a tricycle to my destination.

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Now that I have the first time experience on a plane, I look forward to going on other trips on a plane without anxiety because at that time, I’ll look forward to a very interesting and fun time for myself. In the meantime, I’ll stick to going on short trips by tricycle and motorcycle and use buses for long trips.

This is my entry to the #inleo prompt for May. Don’t get stuck on writing ideas. Hop on the prompt here.

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