It’s August 3, 2026. I have been travelling for 2 days straight now. I should have been in Gurdaspur right now, but instead here I am sitting in a damp restaurant by myself at 1am a whole day later than I had intended to arrive, eating chicken fried rice. I planned everything out; my planes were booked, the best flights I could find. I had a ride to the airport, a ride planned out to pick me up and drive me to my final destination. I had all my travel documents in order and my bags packed and triple checked to make sure everything was there. I even had the coffee pot ready for my 3:30am wakeup call to make it to the airport in Kamloops. Ha! The universe has had different plans for me.
My first flight was cancelled a little over 12 hours before I was set to depart. I pivoted and surrendered to that. I used the whole extra day to pack boxes and patch walls around my rental suite in preparation for my entirely unplanned and unexpected move come September 1st. Fine, I surrender Universe. Let me take care of the things that need tending. Sitting in bed that night, after a full and long day of work, I got the next cancellation. Que several different phone calls, waiting on hold, and panicking to figure out my next move. After two hours my flights had been changed and it was decided that my partner would now drive me 4 and a half hours to Vancouver at 8:30pm to make it onto my 10:15am flight. We packed the kid, the dog, and a queen size foamie for the back of RAV 4 so we could get a few hours of sleep.
This is where we should be smooth sailing. We make it to Vancouver! Sleep in the carpark and we make it up early to get smoothly through check-in. I am happy-go-lucky, about to say goodbye to my family, when bam! The check in lady calls me back to her manager and he takes the ticket from me telling me that because my middle name is not on my ticket, he can’t let me check in. Que several more phone calls, frantically running around the airport to talk to representatives from multiple airlines, and getting run around answers about how no one can help me. Panic, frustration, and then defeat. At this point I am wondering if I am going to make it on the plane at all. So I make the final move possible; stand in line for another hour and basically beg the manager to give me an exception. And… he does! In my relief I said to my partner, “If so much is trying to hold me back from this trip, then it must be good.” In other words if there is this must resistance to push through and my heart is still set on India, this has to be a life changing trip.
So, here I go! I am on my way to India; say goodbye, make it through security, a 16+ hour flight, immigration, security again and onto my final flight, a quick 55mins next to a really sweet mom and her son. I actually made it. I am in India and already I am falling in love with the land and the people, before I have really even met anyone. My final stretch is an hour and half drive to Gurdaspur. I make it outside of the airport and for the first time on this trip the thick heavy Indian air hits me like a wave. And arrivals is full of excited family members welcoming their kin, husbands with bouquets of flowers, and cab drivers trying to make a buck.
“Miss, do you need a cab?” “Cab rides!!”, “No, I already have one.” I assert myself adamantly. This isn’t particularly the place that you can just jump in with any old cab driver. But little to my knowing, the cab driver I have booked is not here and his number isn’t even an Indian number. I try to get ahold of him, but I can’t. So now I am stranded. I try my luck to get back into the airport but I am quickly denied reentry. My saving grace is this beautiful angel of a women who tries to help me- she says it’s not safe the travel the distance at this time of night. I need to wait about 5 hours to get into a cab that can safely take me the whole way there. She says to my tear streaked face, “Because I am a girl and you are a girl, it’s important to me that I keep you safe.” I trust her. I wish I had asked her name, her kindness meant everything to me.
So this is where we are; sitting in that damp restaurant, eating chicken fried rice at about 1am, awaiting the morning hours so that I can make the final stretch safely. I am not even at my final destination. I haven’t even met my classmates that I am meant to be on the trip with. But in my heart, I know I am where I am meant to be. It’s uncomfortable and it’s tested my resilience, yes. But I really don’t believe in coincidences- I really am much more of an everything happens for a reason kind of gal. And if the reason is just one hell of a story about all the hoops I had to jump through to make it all the way to India, so be it.
But I also know this is just the beginning of this trip. The best is yet to come. I have no idea what kind of transformation is in store for me here. I only know that I had a deep, unshakable calling to move mountains to be able to come on this trip. So I moved mountains and I am making it. If anything, all of these setbacks, hurdles, and delays are all one big initiation. What I am being initiated for, I have no idea. But I trust it and I will keep going.