Life Tests

So to put this whole entire trip to the Canadian Rockies in a nutshell- it was a beautiful test of my patience and my life.
First, the journey TO the beauty was so far out and ridiculous. We woke up at 4:30AM to leave for the airport, and when we arrived, we were informed by a Jamaican lady that our flight had been cancelled. She told us with a smile and her eyes looked as if she hadn't slept for weeks, with an attitude in her voice as if we were going to kidnap her children. Okay, we thought, flight cancellations happen all the time- they'll just re-direct us through a new flight at a different time. Our original flight was scheduled to depart at 7:30AM and so as we stood in line for a good hour and half- we finally were booked on another route which would depart at 8AM and go to New York (JFK). Naturally, I was super excited upon hearing this because anywhere near the Big Apple is a happy place for me. Also, having been to JFK before, I knew that the city skyline was clearly visible at the gates. As we got onto our flight to head to the city that is actually alive and has it's own presence, I noticed a a furthermore delay in our trip- we would have to stay in New York for five hours before our next flight was scheduled to depart. FIVE HOURS. In NEW YORK. If you're reading this and you do not understand where my excitement to be in New York within visible distance of the city is coming from, I do not really understand what your life is all about, dude. Anywho, the minute we landed and I glimpsed at the magnificent skyline, I got an adrenaline-rush. Immediately I looked for an authentic New York-styled pizza. Found it. Got it. Ate it.
Now what to do for the next four hours? That can easily be answered- explore. My mum and I went through all the shops, the mini museum gallery, all of that jazz. After a hour and half of doing that, we decided to go to our proper gate, which we had been misinformed about in the first place. We were told that our gate was 31 and then we asked when the plane was boarding the lady at that counter said that we had the wrong gate and ours was in fact located in an entirely different terminal. This is where the test of my patience begins.
We ran. More than the wind. Finding the correct terminal itself was a huge problem. To add on to that, when we reached that terminal, we had to go through security once again. And THEN we were told that we were at the WRONG TERMINAL. This moronic old lady who should have been at some sort of Shady Oaks Retirement Home told us our flight was to arrive at the gate which we just came from. Again, we ran like the wind once again..... THEN WE WERE TOLD TO GO BACK. At this point, I was ready to cry from frustration and I bet that I looked as if I was anyway with all the sweat. But I resisted and went to our flight Services and demanded in the rudest way possible to check where the hell the damn plane was supposed to be arriving. Indeed, it was scheduled to the terminal which we were headed towards in the first place.
While in line for security with like 8 minutes till our plane took off, I was trying so incredibly much to not shed tears. THEN- this man standing and checking passports thought he ran the entire damn airport and had the audacity to tell me that my passport was "invalid".........
Was he out of his damn mind?!?!?! I used the SAME PASSPORT to get from Orlando to NY and this son of a bitch is trying to tell me that all of a sudden, it's invalid? Hahahahaha... All I could do was laugh. I laughed so hard I cried. Then I cried. Like really cried. The people behind me probably thought I was an escaped species from the Bronx Zoo. I gathered composure as my family's name was being called all around the airport via intercom to report to our gate, as our flight was ready for departure. I told the dude "Sir, if my family and I miss this flight, are you going to pay for our trip?" He looked at me, then at my passport, flipped to page 3 and said "Sign this and go." I had no questions. I just did it and left.
To mentally cool off on the five hour plane ride, I meditated.

The trip was indescribable with words because not even pictures do this place justice, forget words. If you would like to look at some of my favorite pictures I took, follow me on Twitter: @BhumikaJ_