Mei-Li G...
Yokota Middle School
Last summer my mom, my sister Lily, and I went to visit family in Ohio. At first the trip was fun, but it started going downhill once we left Japan. Getting on the airplane and going through Japanese security was pretty easy. Sitting on the plane was boring, but what do you expect? You're sitting on an airplane, and only allowed to get up to use the bathroom, and we were on this plane for 12 hours. To get to our destination we had to land in Chicago first. That's when the pain began. We had to go through customs, after my mom forgot to throw away a veggie cup thing, she got at 7/11, so we were sent to agriculture. My mom had to lift 2 50-pound bags. By herself. Afterwards, we had to get through security. I don’t remember the exact number, but the security guards yelled at us so much. They yelled at my mom for putting her shoes in a bin. Lily is crying because she had to have her blue blanket (her favorite blanket) taken away to go through security. Right then I was frantically trying to find a water bottle because me and my mom knew it was somewhere in the stroller. Mom was busy taking Lily's shoes off, and once my mom got both of Lily's shoes off one of the security guards said, “Next time you don’t have to take her shoes off.”
Good to know, wish you told us earlier. After another security guard yells at us because apparently, we have a Bluetooth speaker. It's not a Bluetooth speaker. It's a thing that helps Lily go to sleep. After that my mom is told Lily has to walk by herself through security. It was a struggle, but we got Lily to walk through. Once we finally got out of that mess, me and my sister were bawling, and my mom was about to cry. So upset my mom went up to the information desk, and wanted to know if there was anyone she could talk to. The woman gave us a card, and said there's a supervisor right there we could talk to. With no hesitation my mom pushed Lily a=in the stroller and we walked to the supervisor, she was the nicest person I had met since we entered the states. She said the security had a long day, but that's no excuse for how they treated us. Afterwards, we went to the admires club to take a rest. The women said we could not come in because we weren’t first class or business. My mom told the women were a military family, and she asked if my mom was an active-duty member, my mom said no. So, she said we still couldn’t enter. We were being penalized. My dad was in Japan working for the Air Force. He wasn’t able to be with us because he was busy protecting. We finally found a USO and could chill there. We went to the Starbucks, it's right in front of the security exit, I looked and saw that the mean security guards were gone and replaced. I was happy other people were being treated better. After 6 hours we headed to the gate. We boarded and made it safely to Ohio. Through all my trips being a military kid, that was the worst experience ever.