Marie´s Blog

For the past years  I have been flying frequently for major purpose which is for business. Last time I booked a ticket going to Hong Kong to get back to our office in Shenzhen, China from one of the Philippine Airlines which I always take to every destination whichever country I go. The airlines offered me for their frequent flyer program as they explained to me that I have been flying almost half a million miles to different countries and cities. I was not only flying their airlines but also in their partenered airlines. With this, I was a bit happy for the benefits the program has offered me.

As a frequent flyer, I usually have two things on my mind: to get to my destination and arrive back home as safely and with as few annoyances and discomforts as possible and with all my needs intact.

As a traveler, I got many experiences in the airport like waiting in long lines, getting delayed, getting squashed, jet lag, germs, unexpected layovers in the middle of nowhere, bad food, lost luggage, being homesick, outrageous prices at airport restaurants and convenience stores, red-eye flights, second-rate in- flight movies, ear-blasting changes in air pressure and the occasional lunatic in the last seat. Even funny moments to meet a stranger along the way.

I realized lately as a frequent traveler, I saw how empty it was to get back to your own house empty . This time when I got back home, I have only one thing in my mind: to get a job that would make me get close to my family.

Flying all the time and working away from the home country means missing the opportunities of weddings of cousins, brothers and relatives, missing opening gifts on Christmas, missing playing ball games with your loved ones, missing the nice favorite cake of your mother you always stealin the fridge every midnight, missing the fireworks outside your porch on New Year and feeling the hard way to have the person you like to settle down with.

Last Christmas, I finally joined my family reunion which was the first time I had for after so many years away from home. Same as when I was still a college student, I opened gifts, party with family on New Years Eve, joke around with my very close cousins or even jump on the river at the back of our house.

I received  a lot of gifts which was to make my travels comfortable like pillows,  Ipod with weird headset, a “malong” a travelling blanket and some other stuffs for alleviating travel disturbances, even a book to read. These gifts makes me happy and very helpful in my travel.

But certainly we can all agree that the greatest gift for any traveler like me is hopefully a sight of a loved one’s smiling face upon arriving home.