Long-distance travel is hard. Yes, hauling too much luggage through an airport by yourself is unpleasant, but it’s nothing compared with the inevitable goodbyes that come with leaving school or leaving home. Because my family and my school are across the country from one another, I often find myself longing for high school when my loved ones were mostly in one place.
There’s something about plane travel that inspires the complete opposite sensations from travelling by car. My romantic vision of road trips, bolstered by countless films and novels, involves unbridled optimism and an uncharacteristic enthusiasm for places I would actually hate to live. Planes, on the other hand, produce the opposite sensation—I look out the window and contemplate the big questions—where will I settle? Will I always feel stretched between two coasts? Why do I have so little legroom? So, as I write this from a plane, I give you my wistful “flying home to California” playlist:
Twelve songs—just enough to nod off and wake up when the plane touches down.
