Personal Narrative-Beep, Beeper

“Beep, beep, beep” was all I heard as I stood under the metal detector. I stood there with a wide-eyed gaze in shock; my face must have been priceless. That can’t possibly be me, right? I stood there like a deer in headlights as the TSA officer approached me. “We are going to pat you down, okay? Is there anything that you are concealing?” I shook my head “no.” I knew exactly why it went off on me – my belt. I should’ve known to remove it before passing through the metal detector, but while waiting in the line to get cleared and get carry-ons checked, I remember dreading taking off my shoes, jewelry, and anything that had metal. Because it’s so annoying to take them off for nearly 30 seconds to pass through the metal detector, and then reapply them; it’s a waste of time. Wanting to save time, I asked the TSA officer a brilliant question: “Do I need to take off my belt?” “No”, the TSA officer responded. So, I didn’t remove my belt which led me to this predicament ‒ embarrassed and mortified. I was a 15-year-old girl; I wasn’t a criminal; I wasn’t a threat, nor was I

carrying anything illegal. My family had gone before me, so they didn’t see me standing like a starfish in the middle of the airport while being pat down. I felt helpless; all I wanted to do was hysterically laugh and yell at my parents to come get me. I got pat down, but none the less they realized I was not a threat. Obviously. Once I was cleared, I found my family. I immediately yelled, “Did you not see what happened? You all left me!” I saw they didn’t have a clue of what had occurred, so I explained it to them. They all started laughing at me. I wanted to punch them; they didn’t get pat down in the middle of the airport while the whole family left them behind. After this airport mishap, I didn’t think anything else could go wrong. I eagerly boarded the plane wanting to get away from what happened. By the time I knew it, we had finally arrived in Orlando, Fl.
On our first days of vacation, my family, family friends and I went to Disney World and the Universal Parks. Fast forward three days later, the time had finally come for us to drive to Fort Lauderdale, Fl. in order to board Enchantment of the Seas. At Fort Lauderdale, we left the rental car in a lot and a big van from the cruise-line drove us to the boarding docks. At the boarding docks, workers from the cruise-line would take your luggage, so they can deliver it to your room. Everyone was leaving them, but I had a gut-feeling to keep it with me; however, I ignored it. I reluctantly handed it over. I also had a backpack with me, but I kept it with me due to my instinct. Our party of 5 families finally boarded the ship and took a bunch pictures. Then proceeded to our rooms for us kids to change into our bathing suits, so we could go swimming. Some of the suit cases had already arrived to our room, but mine had yet to arrive. I was still able to put on my bathing suit since I had it in my backpack. So, we went swimming, but when we came back to change for the dinner my luggage still wasn’t there. My parents asked the person in charge of the rooms “When is the fuchsia suit case going to arrive to the room?” He informed my parents that my luggage was misplaced. My parents tried concealing the fact that my luggage was lost from me, I assume so I could enjoy the day. Each time I asked, “Where’s my luggage?’, their expressions would shift and sent me wherever all the other kids were. I knew something was going on, but it wasn’t until my dad told me it was lost that it became surreal. At first, I thought he was playing a cruel joke, but when my mom confirmed it, I knew it was true. My luggage was gone. I started sobbing in the little, yellow couch in the room. My parents kept repeating, “Stop crying; it’s all materialistic items”, but when you spent months planning for a vacation to suddenly lose all your clothes that is not what you want to hear.
Thank God for my backpack because I had two bathing suits, a change of undergarments, a pair of shorts, my makeup and heels for the dinners. While this is not enough clothing for a cruise, at least it was something. In addition, the cruise provided me with toiletries, t-shirts, and free laundry, and the other families we were traveling with also lent me clothing. It was extremely kind of everyone trying to make me feel better, but I still felt defeated. First the airport incident, now this. I remember going to the first dinner with red, puffy eyes, but on the bright side I ate escargots. I wasn’t the only person on the boat with a lost suitcase; four passengers had a lost luggage, but eventually theirs’ were recovered by the end of the first day; mine was not recovered. On the second day, we spent most of it on the pool deck, with my dad and me making occasional trips to the hospitality to check on the status of my luggage, but it was nowhere to be found.
The next day, we arrived in Coco Cay, Bahamas.

I actually forgot about my luggage and really did enjoy being there; it was beautiful; the water was so clear. The next day, the same thing happened in Nassau. The day I felt like moping around because of my missing luggage, was the Formal Gala Night. Since I had nothing formal to wear, the cruise people took my mom and me behind the hospitality desk to a room with more people working and a small selection of formal dresses. I genuinely don’t know where they acquired these dresses; I wondered if they were left behind by passengers or they belonged to the workers. The lady showed me the dresses and asked what size I was and she pulled out two dresses that could possibly fit – one aqua and one pink. I didn’t have much of a choice on which dress to wear: it was whichever dress fit better. The cruise ended and my chances of recovering my luggage

diminished.
I wasn’t upset when it was time to come back home; I had had enough. Upon arriving to the Orlando airport, I made sure to do everything right – I removed my jewelry, belt, and anything with metal. Nothing is going to go wrong this time, I reassured myself. I made it through with ease,but my backpack was stopped. All I wanted to was go home. Why is this happening, again? The TSA officer told me they would have to inspect my backpack to find what it was. It was a water bottle – a water bottle! Thanks to the water bottle, my honey peanut butter was confiscated which I had looked forward to eating on the flight home. In addition, I was worried that they would find my seashells that I brought from the Bahamas in my backpack; I knew if they found it, it would be discarded. All they did was throw away my water bottle and my jar of peanut butter. This minor airport incident added on to the list of my vacation catastrophes. I seriously needed a vacation from the disaster of a vacation.