By: Maya D
In 2012, traveling was known to be fun, exciting and adventurous, but in 2022, ten years later, it is a risk for your safety and health. In the span of those ten years, a lot had unraveled from a global pandemic that forced everyone into their homes to put on masks, to a possible world war three. On March 3rd, I took that risk.
A few weeks back, my family had received a text concerning my grandfather and his health. It was a text that wasn’t good news and quite dreaded. Yet, we received that text and in action, my family and I booked the tickets and we are off to fly 15 hours to our homeland, Jordan.
It was never easy traveling, yet due to COVID, it got worse and worse as if something called “easy travel” never existed. The fear of getting an illness that wasn’t even heard of 5 years ago is unbearable.Vaccination status, documents, and tests, oh my! No wonder it is so stressful for everyone. including mothers who are tasked with caring for everyone’s health or making sure everyone’s passport is safe and not laying somewhere it shouldn’t be.
Although after an unbearable two days of traveling that felt like a whole week, sitting on a plane with strangers for around 10 hours, taking aesthetic photos of the sky, and finding your luggage after a no-show for an hour, I finally arrived in Jordan. Jordan isn’t just a random country in the Middle East, but a country that has all of my love. It is where my favorite food is. It is where special places such as Petra and Al-Adabah are located. Although, most importantly, it is where my family lives.
Even if traveling is considered a risk and that unwanted task, we still took that risk and did that task. Although, that doesn’t matter because traveling is just the sour beginning of the trip and the rest can still be sweet. Being able to be in a room of 20 people that are all related to you, seeing the little cousins reminding themselves of you as they fight for taking turns on the 20 year old bike my Jido (grandpa) bought for us, or fighting for the last piece of Arabic dessert, it is all what I love and take for granted. It is not about the challenging journey, it is more of the destination that matters.
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