I get a bad feeling if a week goes by and I don’t lose my way, spill, break, rip, slam into, fall into or fall out of something. Because see ehn, my brain can do many things, and everyday life is not one of them. One example was during my trip to Korea.
I did my research and checked all the procedures and everything. I was supposed to have a 12 hour layover at Istanbul and I would get a free meal from Turkish airlines. Everything was set, nothing could go wrong.
Until I managed to misplace myself at the Istanbul airport.
So, when you get to the Airport, you’re supposed to pass through the security check and then go up to where all the duty-free shops, lounges and departure gates are. It’s actually quite easy because there is a large sign that says ‘INTERNATIONAL TRANSFERS’ right where you’re supposed to go through baggage check. But there I was, no internet just trekking up and down the airport trying to follow the sign but walking past where they were leading me to.
Why didn’t I ask someone?
Well, while it is true that I am academically smart enough to have gotten scholarships for most of my education, it is also true that I have dangerously low levels of common sense. No like seriously, my IQ drops by like 30 points during social interactions.
Of course, I asked several people and they all said different versions of “oh you’ll just go past the security checkpoint and then you’ll see some stairs, go up then.”
Brethren they said ‘go past’ and I actually went past.
Instead of like, going past (registered as ‘going through’) the checkpoint to the other side like any normal, sane person would. That’s how I kept going up and down, left and right, hither and to just aimlessly walking about for hours and hours with an extremely full backpack and shoulder bag.
As if the universe was really trying to rub it in, my flight got delayed for almost 4 hours.
So, there I was, 14 hours in, hungry, dehydrated, bored to death ‘cause I had no internet and Spotify and YouTube mysteriously deleted everything I downloaded once I landed and I decide to try to ask one last time. So, I’m walking past the security checkpoint place and there’s a friendly looking man taking his laptop out and I walk up to him to ask if he knows how I can get to my gate and he says “You just have to go through here and go upstairs”
I was like “through here?”
And he goes “Yeah you have to go past the security check to get to the other side.”
And brethren that was when it clicked.
I had been sitting right in front of what I had been looking for, for hours on end and could not figure it out.
All my suffering was in vain, absolutely, completely in vain.
I rushed through baggage check and followed the nice man upstairs, but by then it was boarding time for my flight so I couldn’t even get my free meal.
I hate it when I lose free stuff.
As if it wasn’t enough, on the way to my boarding gate, I still got lost like two times. The signs were definitely pointing one way, but when I went that way, it turned out I was wrong. Apparently, I’m also bad at interpreting signs.
After I finally got to Korea, I misplaced myself so much, I almost accidentally left the entire city once. Those ones are whole different story and for now, I have to sleep.
I hope you have a good day/night.
With love, Aderonke.
The Sheba 