As I, a boy with eyes swollen with tears, stepped into the airport, a sudden void was created between my parents and me. 40 days. It was 40 whole days after which we would meet. It was the longest duration in which I would be far from home. Just the number was enough for unpleasant thoughts to creep into my mind. With a blurred vision, I navigated from the DigiYatra entry to the international baggage drop counter. I could see my parents walking alongside me.

After doing the baggage drop, I was asked to sit inside and wait for a person to accompany me as I was classified as an unaccompanied minor. I also got a free window seat in both the upcoming flights. They did some paperwork and even asked my dad, who was still waiting outside, to sign. In the meanwhile, I tried to distract myself by reading a book and watching YouTube.

Fast forward to the stopover in Delhi: By now, I had overcome the sadness. I waited for 4 sleepless hours to be escorted. My family had warned me not to doze off in the layover so as to not miss the flight. To bid my time, I kept watching the luggage entering the conveyor belt and turning due to in-between obstacles. I couldn’t keep looking at the screen at 1 am. I listened to songs and ate Beats (a candy with some spice) to keep myself awake. I was not even allowed to walk or go to any store unattended. Zillion hours later, I was taken for my first ever immigration. They just went through the documents and asked me who was going to pick me up at JFK. They also put a stamp proving that I left Delhi.

And then, finally, I was taken to the gate. But, the flight was delayed a bit. So, I quickly grabbed a snack and waited.

Inside the flight: I had an old couple as my co-passengers. I checked if my in-flight entertainment was working. As the flight had not started, it was not. But I didn’t know about the reason. I panicked and felt miserable. I even sent a message on the family group chat. I tried to console myself. At least I had a window seat and 2 downloaded movies on my phone. Also, I was too sleepy at his point of time. I just waited for the plane to take off and got a video. The in-flight entertainment suddenly switched on, but I considered sleeping first.

After I woke up, I explored the display. It was a very slow touchscreen. The games weren’t working and so was the console. The flight map was also not working. I watched 2.5 hindi movies, which were punctuated with food, sleep and washroom breaks. Once, I even went to the back and asked for some juice.

The first impression of US was nice. I saw a lot of Ford vehicles around and the vehicle size was quite unusual (probably due to different vehicle taxes; I will write an article about it soon). I saw a lot of pickup trucks as well. I changed the sim card and the sim card preference and called Aadityan Anna, my dad’s student, who was going to pick me up.

The expected time to cross immigration was 45 minutes, but as I was an unaccompanied minor, I was taken through the staff line, which was pretty short. I was also allowed to go before the Air India staff.

Around this point of time, I was starting to accept the fact that I will be spending a whole month in the US. And I started getting ready for it…