Personal Essay Sample: Hurricane IDA

I feel free, happy, relieved, and a bit tired, of course, after an eight-hour flight so far from Milan to New York’s JFK airport, and still one hour left.

You may wonder why I’m on a plane to New York City in the middle of a pandemic. Well, it’s because I have decided to leave everything I have in Italy to come to the US and graduate here. Who doesn't do that at eighteen years old?

Suddenly,I received a text message from my mother: “ Have you heard there is a hurricane in New York right now?''My heart stops and my brain cannot process the news that there is a real hurricane that I’m flying through.

After 30 minutes, the landing procedures begin. The pilot makes a terrifying announcement: “We are going to start the landing procedures, there is going to be a strong wind so we expect strong turbulence.” You could feel the terror in his voice even if he was trying to hide his emotions so that we passengers would not be more frightened than we already were

At 12 o’clock, we finally landed at JFK Airport . It was the worst landing of my young existence. You may think “She is eighteen how many planes did she take in her young life? Ten, maybe fifteen?” Well actually my estimation is that in eighteen years I have taken roughly fifty planes and I've visited 25 foreign countries, so if i say that was a rough one believe me!

Once I got off of the plane, I remember thinking everything was fine and that I just had to find the gate for my connection flight. So I looked around to find a monitor, and when I found one I started searching for the information of my connecting flight and then a big word written in red appeared: CANCELLED.

I remember sitting there in the airport crying: I felt lost, alone and I started wondering that maybe going to the United States to study wasn’t the best idea I’ve ever had. No one in that airport was willing to help me since I'm eighteen and considered an adult right now and I think it is crazy . Even now, after two months, when I think about what happened that day I feel completely lost, but I absolutely love my life in the USA: I really like my high school, the classes are challenging and stimulating, the school system is way different from the Italian one and it brings out my best performances as a student and as a human being. The next step now is applying to college. I would absolutely love to go to an American university no matter where in the world!

After another 30 hours, I eventually made it to my final destination but spending the night alone in New York City without my luggage surely was not the easiest thing in the world! Thanks Hurricane IDA,I’ll surely never forget you!