By Fiona Finchem, Opinions Editor
When winter break comes around, First Flight students and faculty get to spend the holidays at home or take a trip, whether they are leaving the country or taking a short road trip to Grandma’s house. But just when we think we can get a break, a chance to take it easy, a scary event occurs.
Sophomore Brooke Tomlin and senior Gage Tomlin took a trip to Tortola, British Virgin Islands, which took a turn for the worst when their oldest sister tested positive for COVID-19 shortly after arrival.
“When we got there my sister tested positive for Covid and then a couple days after we got a note that said we all have to quarantine and then a couple days after that my mom tested positive so we all had to quarantine even longer,” Brooke explained. “We all had to get tested again before we could leave but my mom was still positive. Everyone else was negative so we all got to leave except for my mom. We were supposed to leave Jan.1 but ended up leaving Jan. 7.”
While being stuck in the British Virgin Islands might not sound like the worst thing in the world, it’s not pleasant when you’re stuck in isolation alone.
Junior Tatum Dermatas also experienced complications due to COVID-19. She was on her way to visit her grandma, uncle and cousins in Boardman, Ohio but one phone call on the way there caused them to turn back around.
“My mom and I were six hours into the trip and stopped at a rest station to use the bathroom and my mom gets a call from my grandma that she got tested for Covid and it came back positive. We didn’t know what to do because we were three hours away so we were trying to decide if we should keep going and just stay at a hotel and make it fun for just us two or turn around,” Dermatas said. “We decided to just turn around and my mom drove the whole way back and we got back about 1 a.m and we left at 6 a.m.”
Christmas wasn’t exactly the same without Grandma around, especially as it has been a tradition for her entire life.
Seniors Ian Crumpler, Cason Smith and sophomore Leafy Smith had a lovely vacation to Cancun, Mexico. But after a week of relaxing on the beach, the way home did not go as smoothly.
“So our first flight from Cancun to Orlando was okay and then we were supposed to have a two hour layover but our flight got canceled,” Crumpler explained. “The next flight to Raleigh wasn’t for two more days so we had to get a rental car and drive all the way from Orlando to Raleigh, get our car, and then drive from Raleigh to home. It took about 12 hours and I could not fall asleep in the car, it sucked.”
Similarly, Senior Peyton McCleary spent three weeks in Canada with family but the way home took too many twists and turns to count.
“We were delayed in Calgary and missed our connection in Dallas and there were no other flights to Norfolk for days, so they had my mom and I on one plane to Miami (because there were only two seats) and my sister on a plane to New York (with only one seat available,)” McCleary said.
After McCleary arrived in Miami and boarded her plane to Norfolk, it got even worse when they were told they had to deboard the plane, as they did not have a second officer to fly the plane.
“After spending hours in the airport trying to find flights we realized that we were going to be stuck there for two days with no luggage and no available flights,” McCleary said. “So we made the most of the situation and realized we definitely could’ve been stranded in worse places, especially when we were coming from -20 degrees in Canada to swimming in the ocean at 80 degrees in Florida.”
Even though vacation didn’t go as planned for these Nighthawks, they made the best of these hiccups and maybe, just maybe, next year will be better.
Senior Fiona Finchem can be reached @22finchemfi99@daretolearn.org.
