After a long weekend of fencing, it was time to for us to head home only problem: we couldn’t.
It was Monday morning around 5:30 am. We, me my coach and 3 of my club mates, had just arrived in the Ottawa Airport tired and ready to go home after a long weekend of tough fencing. Once we were through security we headed over to the gate to get on our flight, which would take us to Toronto where we would catch a connecting flight to Calgary. When the plane arrived at the gate we waited to board but there were two problems first we were on standby for the plane and second the plane was full and we were not getting on so we would have to wait for the next plane.
It was around 7:00 am and we were disappointed by our luck we were sure the night before that we were getting on that plane; however, the next flight would come in 2 and a half hours. We looked around for a place to sit while we waited for the plane to arrive. As we reached the other side of the airport we found the perfect spot that had a small child’s playground with a cloud slide and a cartoon looking yellow plane with big eyes and a huge grin that we named Joe beside the seating area. We amused ourselves by doing homework and practicing a play one of my teammates was participating in I believe that the play was about parents testing their child’s friend, I remember that the test involved a car crash and a lot of mistakes. I believe one of the lines between the mom and the friend went like.
“He’s been hit by a car on the street what do you do next”
“I give him cpr.”
”Well he’s still on the road!”
Those 2 hours past by in a flash and before we knew it 9:00 came and we rushed over to the gate so that we could board the plane. We patiently waited and hoped that we would get on to this plane.
“This plane is full we will not be able to board standby,”buzzed the intercom.
We didn’t get on this plane either. Next plane would arrive at 1:30 pm so we trudged back to our little spot and continued we our antics.
Around 11:30 am we decided that we should get lunch we decided to head out of the gate area of the airport to find food, after a quick meal we headed back through security to the gate area and our camp. Once 1:00 pm came we headed to the gate, after a quick detour to find one of our party members that had wandered off, hoping that this would be the plane that we could board. Once again we had no luck and the disheartened group trudged back to our little spot. At this point, we had all finished our homework, although we continued to practice the play, and we were just hoping that we could get back to Calgary by Wednesday, which at the time was looking like the most likely outcome. Still, we headed over to the gate at 5:00 pm but as we expected we did not get on to that plane either. We sat in our little corner of the airport with heavy hearts but we were still trying to enjoy ourselves.
We waited until 7:30 pm when another plane arrived. To our surprise an announcement was called.
“Can we have, our names, come to the counter please,” we were rushed to the counter, we were getting on the plane.
As we left the airport me and my teammates looked at each other and said we must never talk about this ever, and I have to say I quite enjoyed the conversation we had two days later that involved the words: airport, Joe, and plane.
Dear Katie,
This was a charming little story I haven’t heard of before, I knew you flew to fencing tournaments but I didn’t know you ended up staying that long at the airport! This was pretty entertaining to read although I felt like you could have put more emphasis on the humour and devastation of not being about to get on a flight. Oher than that, I really enjoyed reading this.
~Rania
Dear Rania,
Thanks so much for the comment.
I think that it would be a great idea thanks so much for the suggestion.
Katie!!
I just have to say how much I really appreciated the humor that this piece held. I feel as if you accurately portrayed many of the emotions that you had been feeling throughout the time all while keeping it short and concise.
I think that my only suggestion would be to work a bit on your grammar to enhance your writing 🙂
I love reading your writing, and this piece was no exception! Please keep writing!!
Fighting!
Chloe
Your anecdote was totally relatable! I remember a time when I was stuck in the airport for 13 hours with annoying little siblings, it was absolutely awful! Through this story I felt like I got to know you better especially since you maintained a conversational tone throughout the narrative which supported and communicated you story. Really well done! I also liked how you sectioned your writing, it flowed and worked well!
As for improvement, I suggest that you add more dialogue. Specifically, in the first two paragraphs. The storyline was excellent, engaging, and fun to read and to make it a bit better, you can even add dialogues that showcase specific emotions. For an example, when you said “and we were not getting on so we would have to wait for the next plane”, include a short dialogue of what the flight attendant said, what your friends said, what did you feel? This will certainly add flavour to the writing.
Your anecdote was genuinely such a fun read, well done Katie! Being in the same class, I would love to know you more and read more of your writing!!!!!!!!!
Sincerely,
Hefseeba
Dear Katie,
I’m very very sorry Katie, my computers has been acting strangely and cutting out certain parts. I’m meant to address you in the beginning, it wasn’t forgotten!!!
Again very sorry.