Getting out of Charlottesville can be a struggle, especially for out-of-state students. Throughout my time at the University, traveling home for various breaks has never been an easy task. With weather complications and flight issues combined, a cross-country trip that should only take half a day often ends up taking a full day or multiple days to complete. Whether it’s a snow day that ends up shutting down the city or record-breaking high-speed winds that close the airport, students must always be prepared with a plan B when it comes to leaving Charlottesville. This past spring break, when thousands of flights were cancelled across the East Coast, my friends and I were forced to become very resourceful in order to get to California.
On the morning that we were supposed to commence our travels, we awoke to a text from American Airlines — “all flights cancelled.” This has happened to me before traveling out of the Charlottesville Albemarle Airport, as the tiny complex isn’t well suited for any sort of weather complications. Needless to say, I wasn’t surprised.
The first thing to do in a situation like this is call the airlines, but I knew something was very wrong when neither me nor my friends could get a hold of an agent. We soon discovered the scale of the situation when we realized that all the airports on the East Coast were shut down — over 2,300 flights. Masses of students were in a frenzy, desperate to begin the vacations they’d been looking forward to for so long. After finally getting through to an operator, we were told that American Airlines wouldn’t be able to rebook us until Monday, and it was a Friday. There was no way that we were going to miss three days of our break.
I’ll admit that I was the least optimistic of my group. My first inclination was to crawl back into bed. “There’s no chance we get out of here today,” I told my four friends in our group chat, ready to accept defeat. Just as I began to drift into a land of California dreams, however, I awoke to a pounding on my door.
“If we leave within the hour to drive to Charlotte, we can make our connection!”
The next 20 minutes were a blur as I re-sealed my suitcase, threw on clothes and booked it to the rental car agency. It turned out the Charlotte Douglas International Airport was just southern enough that it was unaffected by the windstorm, and the five-hour drive was our only option for making it to California before Monday. We had one rule — no stops. It quickly became clear who the weak link was in the friend group, as we ended up having to make a quick detour for our fellow water guzzler.
I had never seen so much of Virginia in my life, and the drive turned out to be quite pleasant. We listened to music, played typical road trip games and the backseat passengers even got a nice nap. When we finally reached the Charlotte airport five hours and 20 Spotify playlists later, we had just enough time to check our bags, sprint to our gate and make the flight.
Throughout our journey, I learned the importance of communication, spontaneity and speed. I had nearly given up on the entire tip before it began, and it was the persistence of my friends that gave me the willpower to figure out a plan B. Furthermore, while being at the University teaches me many lessons, leaving the University teaches me many lessons too.
Often times, we fall into the trap of thinking we have our lives figured out, which proves to be problematic when a bump in the road causes us to change course. Students experience many of these bumps at the University when they are waitlisted in classes they want to take, don’t get into their major of choice or have to rearrange their summer plans based on the internship opportunities available in the end.
Though these bumps are not desired, they teach us how to be resourceful and discover alternative paths that sometimes turn out to be better in the end. We must continue to remain persistent and open-minded — understanding that we often learn more from having to go with plan B over plan A.
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