Keep Your Head Up, New York City

New York City, NY

I grew up, just like anyone else, hearing an abundance of tales about why public awareness is so important. Not only does it help you be more courteous around others, but knowing how to keep yourself safe is probably the most key aspect of this idea. As a woman especially, I was trained from a young age to always have a buddy, keep at least one headphone out at all times, and pay attention to the people around me. I grew up for the most part in a smaller town where I could've been okay going off on my own at night. But I never did because my mom's rules were drilled into my skull. The things I saw on the news haunted me. I learned to never let my guard down, especially when I traveled.

About four years ago, my family and I went on a trip to New York City to see the Rockefeller tree lighting. It had always been on our bucket list; it was a dream that was finally coming true. I kid you not when I say that I literally DREAMED about these seeing these lights. The music. The crowd. The bountiful Christmas spirit. It couldn't get better than that! When we discovered that the weather would be in the 60s although it was late November, we booked the trip without a second thought. The signs that we should go kept coming and we kept reading them with no hesitation.

Rockefeller Center

We arrived at the airport early in the morning, eager to make our way across the country. Quickly realizing there was a timezone change on our way to the airport, my family of seven scrambled through security and ran to our gate. But just to our luck, they closed the door right on us. If we were a few minutes earlier we could have made it. All the signs that pointed to this being the most perfect trip were instantly materialized. I have been given instructions that I am to not repeat the events that happened shortly after. But to sum it all up, there was some sign throwing and no-fly list placing. I guess that is pretty much it, so just pretend you didn't read that. As these events transpired, my siblings and I hid out in the airport lounge awaiting further instructions. We hoped and prayed that somehow we would make it to New York. And somehow we did.

To this day, I still have no idea how my family was given the opportunity to hop on the next flight. It was definitely a fairly large road bump at the start of our trip, but I was determined to let that become the only low. Everything from here on out would be absolutely perfect. Our flight landed, we collected our baggage and made our way to the hotel. The city was beyond anything that I ever imagined it could be. I had been to NYC when I was much younger, but it's hard to really grasp the reality of anything so amazing when you're that young. I knew from the day I stepped into the city that it was where I truly belonged. Sappy, I know. Moving on.

My parents had rented us a limo to take us to the hotel. This really was a fantasy. Watching the skyscrapers light up the night sky as we drove past sent me into a daze. I'm the kind of girl who likes to look out a car window and pretend that I'm in a music video. This time, I was in a whole movie. I faintly remember hearing my brothers collectively watching Netflix on one of their phones but I didn't pay it much attention. The view was everything; I didn't understand why they weren't as intrigued as I was. Within the hour we arrived at our hotel. Filing out one by one, my family went inside to check in. In an attempt to take it all in, I stood outside with my brother discussing the crazy events that had happened earlier that day.

As we talked, he realized that he had never seen our little brother get out of the limo. We joked about it for a minute and then went inside to join the rest of the family. Quickly, we realized that our jokes had some truth to them. Our little brother was not with our parents. In a panic, we all called him at the same time hoping he'd answer at least one of us. I made eye contact with my dad immediately knowing that he was the lucky one. On speaker, my little brother explained to us that he hadn't realized that we had left. Still watching Netflix with both AirPods in, he had no sense of public awareness whatsoever. At the very back of the limo, he would've been the last to leave. We heard him knock on the shade that separated the passengers from the driver. He must've given the driver a heart attack.

About 20 minutes later, thanks to many one-way streets, our little brother was returned to us. In a big family, I hate to admit it, but it's easy to lose count of each other. From that day forward we were each assigned a number and had to complete a roll call. The rest of the trip went by without any big hitches, but this night never left any of our memories. While it's all fun and games to joke around about it every now and then, our awareness has spiked because we don't want to ever have to go through something like this again.