waiting for first flight

posted October 14, 2026

I'm at the airport waiting by my gate right now. I'm expecting to board very soon. When checking in my bag I was asked to share the visiting pass (the one meant for short term visits to the UK) but I mentioned I'm traveling on a visa and showed them an email. And it went smoothly. I was nervous there would be some kind of issue (possibly because the visa starts today or maybe something I did wrong). It felt nice to get though security. It hasn't really hit me yet that I'm moving. I feel like many of the days leading up to now have blended together and I'm not totally comprehending that I'm moving out of the country. This is something I've thought about doing for awhile. Initial thoughts of it when I was younger were small what-ifs that I didn't take seriously but sounded intriguing. Then when I learned about qualifying for the HPI visa via NYU I started thinking about it more seriously but not really knowing if was something that would pan out or that I'd take action for. I think it was maybe around my last semester that I started feeling lost/directionless in life which made me start actually taking the idea seriously. It's been awhile since I graduated now but it's happening. I'm amused that I watched an idea leave my head and become reality.